S2-E7 - Shay Leonia | Recording Artist

Go Under the Musical Influence of Shay Leonia answering 9 Questions about her Musical Self.
 
Shay Started In The Band Literally Being Born into Music and Grew Up in a Family of Musicians in New Jersey to Following Suit with the Rest of Her Family by Learning to Play the Trumpet to Singing on the Subway to Finally Working with Some Major Music People to now Living in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Shay's Music Sounds Like A Mix Between Kelis Vocals Over Nine Inch Nails Beats!

I Decided to Go Sing for a Living and Received a Scholarship to the American Musical Dramatic Academy.

I Started Singing on the Subway to get a Meal a Day.
It was a Life or Death Scenario!
I Lied and Said I Was Raising Money for Studio Time.

One Person Came Along, Passed me a Flyer and Asked me if I Written Any Music?
Do You Think You Can Do This?

I Started Writing Music and Networking a lot!

I Started Really Getting a Lot More Attention for my Singing.

I have Worked with Some Major Music People like Janelle Monet, Marley Marl, The Pharcyde and the Lords of the Underground.

I was Featured on a RuPauls Drag Race Commercial.

Now I Get to Help Other Indie Musicians through my Company 44th Minute Media!

What is Busking?

I didn’t Want to Live that Cube Life!

Theres a Narrative Around the Day Job

It’s the Need to Explore the Adjacent Jobs!

The Adjacent Path will Help Shape Your Eventual Career in Music!

What is Battle Jazz Trumpet?

She was Singing George Michael “Monkey” at 3?

My Sister Snuck Me Into Bars to See Led Zeppelin Cover Bands.

This is Just All they People that Have Been Affected by the same Thing that Affects Me!

Janet Jackson What a Legend!

Sam Goody Employees Were Shazam!

I Miss the Type of Spark & Magic of the Work You Would Do to Try and Buy a Song!

You Really Have to Work So Much Harder to Get Your Fan Base to Care!

A lot of that Magic is Gone & it’s Heartbreaking!

Songs have Feelings?

I Feel Guilty I Haven’t Paid Attention to the Song(s).

One of the Songs is Gonna Hear Me and Their Feelings are Gonna be Hurt!

Can you Duck and Dodge a Question?

Who Do I Have Tattoos Of Right Now? Thats How I Answer this Question!

Indie Artists Your Spotify Follower Count Does Not Determine Your Success?
So What Does?

It’s like I’m a Jukebox! Say a Word and I’ll Sing a Song!

Do You Eat, Sleep, Crap, Music?

What do Cantors Do?

Music is in my Blood, Literally in My Bloodline!

What is a Trash Cans Style of R&B?

Music Discussed from Janelle Monet, Marley Marl, The Pharcyde, the Lords of the Underground, Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand, George Michael, Wham!, Stevie Wonder, Doris Day, Michael Jackson, Nirvana, BIG, Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Bill Conti, Bob James, Mel Carter, Page and Plant, Bon Jovi, Janet Jackson, Toni Braxton, Naughty by Nature, Treach, Skillz, El Da Sensei, The Artifacts, Raekwon the Chef, Monifah, George & Ira Gershwin, Technotronic, and More!

Find Out More About Shay Leonia’s Music!
https://www.shayleonia.com/
https://shayleonia.bandcamp.com/album/weighted-ep
https://soundcloud.com/shayleonia
https://www.instagram.com/shayleonia/?hl=en

Find Out More About the Band that Intro's & Outro's the Show! https://www.instagram.com/yearofoctober/
 
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Transcript

Year of October: 0:36

And you. Now under the influence with DJ DJJonniBravo.

DJJonniBravo: 1:03

Hello, I'm Jonni Bravo. Welcome to season two of In the Band. Today you're going under the musical influence of today's guest, Shay Leonia, and Under the Influence with DJJonniBravo. Shay is here to tell us yes, a little bit about herself and a little bit about her musical self, and I'm glad to have her. You're in New York City, is that correct?

Shay Leonia: 1:22

I'm actually from Jersey, but I relocated to Philly during the pandemic, so I'm getting a little bit around here.

DJJonniBravo: 1:28

All right. So you're all, okay. So I saw I think it was Instagram, one of those socials that you were from New York, and, but also Jersey, so cool. So you're in Philly now. You're hitting all the major towns.

Shay Leonia: 1:38

I am. That I am.

DJJonniBravo: 1:40

Tell us a little bit about your musical self.

Shay Leonia: 1:42

so I grew up in a family of musicians. And I always knew that I wanted to be a performing artist of some sort, but I, everyone who knew me thought that it was gonna be dance based. I did follow suit with the rest of my family by learning how to play trumpet, and I really excelled at that into high school. But then I started really getting a lot more attention for my singing, and so I decided to go to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and got a scholarship. and that's where I, for the very first time, got professional singing lessons. But I was going through some financial hardship during that time and it was really stressful. like really dire, beyond the having enough money to pay for ramen noodles each night, I decided to start singing on the subway just to make sure I could get one meal a day. I met a lot of ski V people while I was singing on the platforms. There was this one person that came along and passed me a flyer and started talking to me about, Hey, have you ever written any music? Do you think you can do this? He took me under his wing we started working together and I started writing music and learning the ins and outs of the business and networking a lot. then fast forward to where I am today. I've been blessed to have worked with some major people like Janelle Monet, I've been featured on RuPaul's Drag Race commercial. I've worked with Marley Marl and The Pharcyde and, Lord's the Underground. It's just, been incredible. now I get to help other indie musicians through my company, 44th Minute Media to navigate their careers.

DJJonniBravo: 3:14

Oh man, that is so awesome. Going from the school and then going to the subway, that must have been like a hard pill to swallow.

Shay Leonia: 3:22

It really was. And so many of my friends, they absolutely love the freedom that they get with busking and just doing it to make a living. But when I was doing it was really a very life or death scenario. It was that I had no money to my name and I was in class all the time. so I really, I just needed to have a way to eat dinner. And because of the fact that, I was. I was in competition with homeless people coming on the subway most of the time. people would look at me think I'm not gonna give her any money. She looks like she's fine. But the truth was, I wasn't fine. But I didn't want people to know that. So I would just lie and say, I was raising money for studio time and people would give me money that way, and every now and then, the homeless people would even give me their money. And I just, I felt awful. But really difficult position to be in. Because, have creepy guys asking to come home with them and sing to them at their house. it was just not a pleasant time. But it did get me started.

DJJonniBravo: 4:21

That's just a, an awesome story. I was recently watching the Tonight Show and they had Maneskin on, and I didn't realize that Maneskin like sing out on the street Italy. And when you go down into the subways, if you've ever been into New York. You'll be in the subway and all of a sudden they'll bring on a boombox or stop and do a show.

Shay Leonia: 4:36

Yeah.

DJJonniBravo: 4:36

people will sing and have some really creative people. In my personal life, I help people get work and we always have a lot of artists people that are doing certain things like painting or whatever, and there's really no outlet for any of that. You really don't get paid for that. It's like your side gig. It's always like your side hustle and it really should be more of an emphasis on the arts and people in the arts in order to do that. Here you are going to a prominent school and you can barely survive and you're on the subway. And I applaud that you were doing everything that you could to survive and that you went to that and did that because that's, an awesome story to tell, but you survived and you're still doing it. That's great because sometimes people will give up on the art and you didn't.

Shay Leonia: 5:19

I couldn't. I don't know if it has as much to do with my tenacity as it does with just the environment that I grew up in. It was always going to be music because of the family that I came from. I just could not see myself in a cubicle or doing anything but music because nobody else in my family did anything but music.

DJJonniBravo: 5:40

Hard. I don't know if you've ever seen the movie Beautiful Girls, but he comes back to town. They have their reunion and everything and he's a, piano singer I think in a lounge, like in a hotel or whatever. And he's trying to decide if he's gonna continue to do that or get like a real job. Cuz he's thinking about getting married and all that. That's sometimes what people have to face when they're doing art. do I have to go get one of these cubicle jobs and live the cube life? People don't want to do that. You wanna do your art, you want to do this, you want to do this all the time and you want to do it full throttle, maybe not full throttle all the time, it's like this is what you're living for and you're breathing for, and to live that cube life and to try to do it on the weekends, it's hard. And there are people out there doing it. And I applaud that too, but just glad you didn't give up on the art and you're still out there doing what you were meant to do.

Shay Leonia: 6:25

Oh yeah, and I won't act like there weren't, in between regular jobs. But the thing is that there's such a narrative around the day job and this just complete lie and myth around the dependability and stability that a regular job provides. But if you don't start finding ways to be capable and thrifty as a musician, and a lot of times, and most times, that's gonna mean it's gonna be adjacent to what you think you're making money from. Like a lot of the new indie artists that I speak to, they think that, just simply by playing shows or just simply by releasing their music somehow through osmosis, they're just gonna attract streams of income. What they don't realize is that they need to really explore the adjacent jobs. So teaching music or coaching someone how to do what it is that you're doing now or doing wedding gigs, doing the lounge singing. Those are gonna be the kinds of things that are going to bring you opportunities to, just get your feet wet in the business. And the more you do that, the more strength of character you build. When you know, you do end up having to supplement it with a day job and not resenting it or thinking that you're too good for that.

DJJonniBravo: 7:34

I was just thinking of all the people that are out there that want to do the art. When I wanted to do radio, like I was trying to figure out how to get on the radio and be on the radio and be that guy. What you were talking about. I had to do everything adjacent. I had to work at a skating rink. I had to work turning off equipment at a radio station. I had to get on the radio station, but it was like AM. I did parties, I DJ'ed, so it was like all these things adjacent and then eventually I got on the radio. But if I wasn't doing all those adjacent things, I wouldn't have been in the mix to even be on the radio and do these things. So you do have to do a lot of these adjacent things to get your music out there and yourself heard.

Shay Leonia: 8:14

Absolutely. And the adjacent path also is gonna be what is gonna help shape your eventual career in music in a more colorful way than it would if you had just a straight path towards it.

DJJonniBravo: 8:25

Man just some, awesome lessons for the people that are out there that are in music, trying to get streams and figure out how to make money around this whole thing. Cuz it is, something that you just do sometimes for a good while and you're not making any funds on it. You're like, questioning, is this the route that I really need to take? Hang on, keep doing it. Keep struggling.

Shay Leonia: 8:42

Yeah.

DJJonniBravo: 8:43

Getting out there.

Shay Leonia: 8:43

Absolutely.

DJJonniBravo: 8:44

Let's move into question two and, talk about when you first discovered music. Like how old were you, what were you doing?

Shay Leonia: 8:49

Growing up in a family of musicians, my brother and sister are much older than I am. They are, 16 years and 12 years

DJJonniBravo: 8:57

Oh man.

Shay Leonia: 8:57

I had much older parents than my friends did, and much older siblings than my friends did. So when I was in the womb, I was pretty much being, being pummeled with every single type of music that you can think of. From Sunday mornings listening to jazz on the radio to, waking up in the mornings, walking down the stairs and seeing my brother and father like battle jazz trumpet on who could play Night in Tunisia better. it really ran the gamut. And then my mom was the only person in the family that wasn't an instrumentalist, but she used to always joke that she played the radio. Area of expertise was really like fifties and sixties music combined with show tunes. So I definitely had a lot of exposure to the Liza and the Barbara. my earliest music memory, I would have to say is Singing Monkey by George Michael at three years old, on home video. I think that's like my memory of watching that video play back and it being so fresh in my mind of telling my mom it ta, which is, it's called it ta and then me being this three year old thinking this song is really about a monkey when really it's about somebody quitting drugs.

DJJonniBravo: 10:09

Oh, yeah. Family only knew the lyrics

Shay Leonia: 10:11

exactly. But my sister was such a hardcore, Wham fan. Like she was one of those little girls that like, thought she was gonna grow up and marry George Michael, Wamp to everyone who thought that. it was just constant with the George Michael and the eighties music and then the Stevie Wonder playing in the house. the show tunes constantly. It was just, I feel like again, like I just, I came home from the hospital and it, and there it was just everywhere.

DJJonniBravo: 10:36

That's a good memory to have good that your family, turning you on to different types of music. that really helps, just, in the world period to know a lot of music. My kids are collective and they know a lot of music and it surprises me sometimes the stuff that they're playing. Like my daughter was playing the Tori's big one time in the shower. And,

Shay Leonia: 10:53

Love it.

DJJonniBravo: 10:53

I know. And then she's also like the number one, streamer of Andor Lloyd Webber. That shows you like, kind

Shay Leonia: 10:59

Wow.

DJJonniBravo: 10:59

An eclectic kind of thing that is out there. But you hadn't even been born yet and you're already in the band.

Shay Leonia: 11:04

Oh, absolutely.

DJJonniBravo: 11:05

So you were just like there and waiting. Like, okay what instrument do I play? Where am I on the microphone? Am I singing? What am I doing?.

Shay Leonia: 11:11

Yeah, honestly. And like the first songs that I sang were at my dance recital and my mom was having me learn Doris Day songs. but when I would hang out with my friends, we were all learning the dance moves to the latest Michael Jackson video. So it was just, it really was just everything. being taken to the jazz festivals, it was such a culture shock for me when I would go over my friend's homes and they would serve dinner at the dining room table and they would all eat together in silence. And I was just like, this is really uncomfortable. You all don't have music playing 24 7 in your house, what is this? But then they would come over my house and see all of the instruments laying around and watching my father get ready to go to a wedding gig and getting his cumber bun on. And it was such different world from what I was used to in my house.

DJJonniBravo: 12:03

That, experience of having just music in your life, you always want that soundtrack. You watch movies. Yeah. And you hear the music in the background and you're like, that's me. I have music playing all the time. I'm playing in a record, or I'm playing, Spotify or I'm singing my own stuff, or, picking up my own instruments, doing my own thing. So that's a really cool, family to have. And then also to turn your friends onto it too, because they're not used to it. They're suffering in silence, 21 pilot says, quiet is violent. You know what I mean? And it doesn't always have to be like, I don't have good working radio in my son's truck that I've been driving. I'm, sometimes not listening to anything. And he's dad, do you just go to work, not listen to anything? I'm like, yeah, sometimes you just need to pause and have a, your brain think for a minute.

Shay Leonia: 12:44

Yeah, I'm trying to be better about that because the silence is really deafening. I try to at the very least, have some type of ambient sounds playing, but the music 24 7 is really a thing. I can't even think about silence and being comfortable. I don't know.

DJJonniBravo: 12:59

And there's nothing wrong with it. And there's nothing wrong with silence either. And sometimes the quiet when, once you do get used to it, really helps you to really critically think about stuff and what the next things are and those types of things as well.

Shay Leonia: 13:13

Yeah.

DJJonniBravo: 13:14

But music there too. It's always a comfort too. Because if you're having a stressful day you're having a good day, you throw on Ice cube. And or you having a bad day, you throw on, some nirvana or smashing pumpkins or something.

Shay Leonia: 13:25

Yes.

DJJonniBravo: 13:26

Or Mary J Blige or whatever people are listening to.

Shay Leonia: 13:29

It's so interesting you say that because I was actually at a karaoke night a couple weeks back, and it was with people that were meeting me for the first time. And they said kind of music do you put on when you're feeling good and I just looked at them. Because It really depends on what the weather is and how I've been feeling throughout the day. It's really gonna depend because I could put on, like you said, from between Nirvana to BIG to Beethoven, throw it all in there. Why not?

DJJonniBravo: 13:54

You might be listening to something like from the sixties, like the Monkeys or something, daydream, believe.

Shay Leonia: 13:59

Yeah.

DJJonniBravo: 13:59

Or even sometimes I'll put on, and don't judge people that are out there. I'll put on the Brady Bunch when it's like he's singing his time for change and,

Shay Leonia: 14:06

yes,

DJJonniBravo: 14:07

sunshine Day I listen my crap like that because it's I'm so happy. It's like I'm almost in a musical and I wanna sing out to the world, but I can't really sing out to the world. So I'll just sing along with the Brady Bunch

Shay Leonia: 14:19

I get it. I totally get it. Yes. Oh my gosh, the theme songs do the same thing for me. Oh my gosh. Now I'm thinking about the full house theme song that popped in my head.

DJJonniBravo: 14:28

See happy songs pop in your head when you're thinking about happy.

Shay Leonia: 14:31

Yeah.

DJJonniBravo: 14:31

You already talked about your first song that you remember and that's Monkey by George Michael from

Shay Leonia: 14:36

Yeah,

DJJonniBravo: 14:37

from WHAM!

Shay Leonia: 14:38

I guess we could consider that the first song I remember. I feel like it's the lie, but let's just go with that answer.

DJJonniBravo: 14:44

We'll go with that answer unless you wanted to add something else to it, there's another song that you remember from back in the day.

Shay Leonia: 14:49

Oh gosh.

DJJonniBravo: 14:49

You wanna show how eclectic you are. and that's putting you on the spot. Maybe, I don't know.

Shay Leonia: 14:54

Again, a knight in Tunisia for sure. I wanna say that was the Art Blakey version. anything from the Miles Davis, maybe Blue and Green. Jim by Clifford Brown. Clifford Brown was one of my brother's favorite, trumpet players. Definitely Doris Day you could do ques. That was a big one. And then anything from the Hello Dolly or Funny Girl soundtrack. There's just, there's too many Stevie Wonder, oh my gosh, songs in The Key of Life. That whole album was just on repeat and my house, but so was the Rocky soundtrack. So we got some good old Bill Conti action in there gonna fly now. Yeah. And then also if we're talking about the TV show themes, Bob James, Angela from Taxi. That was another big.

DJJonniBravo: 15:38

People don't, give the TV show themes, props. There's some really good TV show themes out around there.

Shay Leonia: 15:42

There will be good ones really good ones. but yeah, we'll be here all day if we think about my earliest memories songs. Because like I'm saying it was a constant. It's like asking someone what's the first time you remember breathing air

DJJonniBravo: 15:54

especially for a music lover,

Shay Leonia: 15:55

it's always been there. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

DJJonniBravo: 15:57

Especially for a music lover it is like breathing air music is Is, one of our sense and

Shay Leonia: 16:02

Right.

DJJonniBravo: 16:03

It takes us over as one. That's just a great thing to have when you're a lover of music. It's nothing wrong with it.

Shay Leonia: 16:09

Absolutely.

DJJonniBravo: 16:10

Let's take a break and then we'll be right back. So everybody just hang on.

Year of October: 16:28

You are still under the influence with DJ DJJonniBravo.

DJJonniBravo: 16:35

We are back. I'm Jonni Bravo. You're going under the musical influence of today's guest, Shay Leona, and under the influence with DJJonniBravo. All right, Shay, let's talk about, that long distance dedication, that first couple song, what does that look like? If you were calling up on the radio and dedicating to Casey Kasim?

Shay Leonia: 16:53

Oh gosh, you're Casey Kasim. It would actually have to be for my mom, and I would say that I would do, hold me, kiss me thrill me by Mel Carter. There are so many different songs that just transport me back to hearing her in the kitchen, washing dishes and just singing these songs at the top of her lungs. they always make me smile because they're just so her. that's definitely one of them because it has that epic key change and, it's just such an incredible song. So that would be the one. Hopefully one day if I ever meet the guy, I will, hopefully walk down the aisle to that song and feel like I have her there.

DJJonniBravo: 17:32

That would be cool. and you might have your own song with him. You never know,

Shay Leonia: 17:36

right?

DJJonniBravo: 17:36

Yeah,

Shay Leonia: 17:37

You never know. You never know.

DJJonniBravo: 17:39

Let's, go into concerts. I'm sure you know all about this, being out there live in the subway and other places, I'm sure now, what was the first concert that, you went to or that first concert that you want us to remember?

Shay Leonia: 17:52

my first concert, I won't count the jazz festivals, because I definitely remember a bunch of those, from birth. the first concert was, my sister was like, again, she 12 years older than me. So she was like a teenager when I was a little kid. She was constantly getting to go to or at least in my child's brain, it felt like she was constantly going out to like George Michael concerts and other concerts. And one day I remember she had been working at Sam Goody and, my mom had the home video Was recording the whole thing and she's talking to my sister about how my sister had just gotten Stevie Wonder tickets. And I remember, my mom pans the camera to me and I'm just so sad and so obviously jealous of my sister. And then all of a sudden my sister busts out the second ticket and she goes, do you wanna come with me to the concert? And so I freak out in the video, and of course she took me to my very first Stevie Wonder concert. And then years later she took me to see Page and Plant. Those were really like my two first big concerts. And absolutely loved them. Like I was head banging to Page and Plant and it was just, ugh. It was amazing. And then years later when I still was not of legal age, she was sneaking me into bars to see Led Zeppelin, cover bands. So definitely made my way around there.

DJJonniBravo: 19:13

on one of the episodes I talked to my wife and her sister, and her dad went to go see Pink Floyd without her on the Division Bell tour. And I think it, hurt her so much inside that she doesn't even listen to the Division Bell hardly anymore.

Shay Leonia: 19:26

Wow. Yeah, I believe it.

DJJonniBravo: 19:28

Yeah. It's not one of her favorites. So I'm glad that, your sister finally took you out and then, y'all embrace that together because there's nothing like going to a concert, but there's nothing like going to a concert with somebody that enjoys the music just as much as you do. And then when you get under that roof, it's Man, all these people really Stevie or all these people really like Zeppelin. Yeah. It's wow, this is so cool. And you're singing the same songs and you're doing the same things and you're like, man, there are a bunch of people out here just like me,

Shay Leonia: 19:56

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. it's such a different experience. And I remember, I think for Page and Plant, I was a little older than, so we were able to witness our first tailgate parties, alright. Which I had never heard of such a thing. And then all of a sudden we show up and everybody's just got trucks pulled up with, the backs laid down and just grilling and serving beers to everybody. And it's just really this big community gathering of people that just love this music and what it's done for us. It's so powerful to see. That portion of it, because you don't necessarily feel that when you're inside under the roof as you're just surrounded in darkness and all you can see is the stage. But when you're in that parking lot, it's just wow. These are the people who have all been affected by the same thing that affects me.

DJJonniBravo: 20:45

Wow I'm a people watcher, so I always like to, look around, when the lights, shine up and look at everybody

Shay Leonia: 20:51

Yeah.

DJJonniBravo: 20:51

just singing their hearts out to like whatever their favorite song is, or just jamming out. you talk about the tailgate too. I remember when I went to go see the Grateful Dead and Sting and just the community around the Grateful Dead, and you really wanted to support everybody because those folks were trying to get to the next show. So you wanted to buy a grilled cheese sandwich from'em, or a tie dyed shirt or whatever, just to support them to like, dude, get to the next show. Here's some bucks, man. Yeah, of course. Growing up you don't have that much money, so it's not like you can throw it around like you have it, at least you can support them a little bit. But that was the first time I ever witnessed that, and that was just such a powerful thing because it's wow, there's people that follow the dead around and like, how many shows have you been to? How old are you? And, that kind of thing. And they're just traveling around with the dead. of course when, Jerry died Phish took that on and people were following Phish around, but, you don't see the tailgate that much, but you still see it a little bit, but not as extensive probably in some of those shows.

Shay Leonia: 21:47

Definitely. Yeah. I don't remember why I was there, but I feel like I witnessed the tailgate party for Bon Jovi once. But honestly, I hadn't felt that type of camaraderie again until, when I was in college. me and my friend we slept outside to see Janet Jackson perform on s SNL so we were like the last people that were allowed in. I just remember like being on this long line with people just talking about how much we adore Janet Jackson and just getting to see all of these other fans and doing something so extreme, like sleeping on a New York City Street just to be able to see her. it's just people will do the darnedest things for tickets and now it's like I get to, experience what it's like to actually have my own money and to be able to pay for better seats and to see these people up close and feel the difference of where you're sitting in terms of your enjoyment of the show itself too. it's just wild.

DJJonniBravo: 22:46

My, daughter and I went to go see 21 Pilots and it was on their Treach tour and they had all the yellow tape. Everybody was yellow taping themselves up before they went in and wow. My daughter and I were yellow taped up and the cops stopped and said, Hey, what's all this yellow tape going on? What did, what's it and is it part of the band? I'm like, yeah, it's the colors of, the new album. And yellow is part of, getting out of, the'Ched. I said, it's a whole thing. I said, you, I don't know if I can explain it to you. There's a whole thing behind it. But when I worked, cuz I worked for Sam Goody, as well, and I worked for the radio station and I wanna talk about Sam Goody here in a second. But when I, worked for the radio station and we were able to go out and get tickets. We wanted to go see Janet Jackson. We were like working in the basement of the radio station, told our manager to go get tickets for us. She waited in line at one of the record stores, probably with Sam Goody, and was like, I want tickets. Somebody right in front of her had bought like$6,000 worth of tickets and the show that we were all gonna go see was Janet Jackson. So I've never,

Shay Leonia: 23:41

oh my God,

DJJonniBravo: 23:42

never gotten to see Janet Jackson. I want to go this year to the Virginia Beach Tampa Theater and see her with Ludicrous, because I love Janet and I've been wanting to see her. And that was like, I don't know if that was the Control Tour, the Rhythm Nation Tour, but that would've, either way would've been an awesome tour and I haven't had a chance to see her.

Shay Leonia: 23:58

Wow. Yeah, my cousin thank God for my cousin. He actually surprised me with tickets to see her in Austin. So now I just gotta get my, took over to Austin and I'll be seeing Janet this year. But I definitely saw her in her last her last tour and she's just What a legend. What an absolute legend.

DJJonniBravo: 24:14

Yeah. You have to definitely see those folks because you never know when something's gonna happen, God forbid. And that happened to me with I could have gone to see, Beastie Boys, but I didn't wanna see'em at the time.

Shay Leonia: 24:23

Wow.

DJJonniBravo: 24:24

And I was like, man, if I could have, seen them. And we were gonna go see the Eagles one year, my daughter's a real big Eagles fan and then Don Henley, so it was like, it was like, we should have gone to see, but we had seen so many concerts that year. I just didn't have the funds to go.

Shay Leonia: 24:36

I totally feel your pain on that because there are so many times where I see a name that I would love to see live and I just can't, I can't do it at the time. And it just, it sucks because concerts are definitely one of those things where it's you wanna go while they're still around. I'm dying to go see Bruce Springsteen. I feel like I gotta turn in my Jersey card until I until I see Springsteen finally. Cuz it's never happened. But there's so many different acts like that, that I'm dying to go see. And I just can't stress enough to people, anyone who's listening who's eh, a concert, I don't know. That's a schlep. No go.

DJJonniBravo: 25:10

Exactly.

Shay Leonia: 25:10

Because you never know what you're gonna experience or how it's gonna change you.

DJJonniBravo: 25:13

And recently I was on Facebook and back in the day, Bruce Springsteen came to Virginia Commonwealth University, V C U, and he was so much unwell, known that they spelled his name Springsteen. So that shows you how long ago, and don't think I was, I don't think I was living at that point, but I might have been. But some of those shows that you look at and you're like, man, I wish I would've been in that show.

Shay Leonia: 25:35

Wow.

DJJonniBravo: 25:36

Go. People go.

Shay Leonia: 25:37

Yes. Yes.

DJJonniBravo: 25:39

So I wanna talk a little bit about Sam Goody before I get into question six. And you said your sister worked at Sam Goody and I worked at Sam Goody. It's nothing like working at a record store. Because your sister worked there were you probably hanging out there a good while cuz you're probably hanging out at the mall? Or would, did you not hang out at the Sam Goody with her?

Shay Leonia: 25:53

Not really, because when she was working at Sam Goody, I was still pretty little. And I even remember there was a time where she was working and she called my mom to alert her that the cast of Clarissa explains it all was signing autographs. And my mom raised me over to the mall to, so I could get my headshot from Ferguson, the guy, the kid that played Ferguson signed and Melissa Joan Hart. But, I was still very little, so I was yet to fully form into the New Jersey Mall rat. But I did definitely have my fair share of trips to Sam Goody where, again, this is the nineties. So like I would hear a song once and fall in love with it, but I wouldn't know who sang it. I wouldn't know the name of the song. And so I would, you would just literally, Sam goody employees, and I'm sure you experienced this too, Sam Goody employees were Shazam. So if you wanted to learn what a song was, there was no Googling it. You go up to the employee and you say, Hey, there's this song that goes like this at night, I think of you. And then they would go, oh, that's this song by and then they would walk you over to the cd. And even if you just like that one song, nope, now you have to pay$18 for the full album because it's not available on single and So that was my memories of Sam Goody. But yeah, my, my sister was was definitely working there for a good while I was frequenting.

DJJonniBravo: 27:14

I'm glad that you put the rubber stamp on it because I have talked about on this podcast before we are, or we were Shazam. I worked in an urban market, so I would have people come in, you know that junk that goes like this, that junk that says like this, and it does like this, that junk. And I'm like, oh, I know that junk goes like this and then like that. No, it goes like this. And then it goes like that. And then it goes like this. I'm like, oh, that's that junk. And then I'll grab'em the tape. They'll be like, that is the junk. And they're like, how much is it? And that was like, that would be our conversation.

Shay Leonia: 27:42

Literally. And I feel like any Gen Z person is probably gonna be like, what? Really? But yeah! Because at the time, like I, really don't feel like they, they don't get it. at the time, really your only research tool was the encyclopedia that your parents had invested in 10 years ago that are sitting there, dusty. They don't have any information. You're not gonna. The song in the encyclopedia. So then all of a sudden, what was it what were those first CD ROMs that came out to the house with, they were like, the pre Wikipedia days. Oh God, why can't I remember it?

DJJonniBravo: 28:17

I can't remember.

Shay Leonia: 28:18

But anyway, you would put the CD rom in and you would just cross your fingers that you could find any more information on that. But it was just so early days internet, and it really was just about hoping to God that you had some type of a, pitch perfection, that you could actually sing the song in tune. And I can't imagine how many people went up to you and probably were just like, just sounded God awful and you had to try to decipher what song they were singing.

DJJonniBravo: 28:44

And half the time they didn't know the lyrics or they're singing the wrong lyrics. And it's those aren't the lyrics. I was in Panera one day and, you know, elevator music and I'm hitting there listening to this song and I'm like, I know this song. What is it? And thank God for Shazam. Cause I hit Shazam. it was Wutang Clan Cream, but it was by a guy that his, like his name is El Michael something or other. And he did like the whole album kind of jazzy with the sound effects and everything. I'm like, am I seriously listening to Cream by Wutang for elevator music? But I would've never known that unless, yeah, I would've never known that unless it was for Shazam. So thank God for Shazam and the phone and the Google and all that because yeah, we didn't have any of that.

Shay Leonia: 29:26

Oh yeah. Yeah. And somehow we survived.

DJJonniBravo: 29:29

We did. We did. And we're better off for it, cuz now we probably do a bunch more research on it even after we find out what it is.

Shay Leonia: 29:36

We really are. I really long for those days again, like even though it was such a pain in the ass. I still miss the type of spark and magic that, that whole sense of of work that you had to put in to really love a song that much where you're willing to drive out to your nearest music store and literally be willing to put humiliation aside to sing to an employee, to try to get ahold of this song. That just goes to show the energy that we were putting in, forming lines around the block for the latest release at Tower Records that we had been dying to get. Compared to today where we're so desensitized and you really have to work that much harder to get your fan base to care because that it's so far from where we were back when we were growing up. And a lot of that magic is gone and it really is heartbreaking.

DJJonniBravo: 30:28

Yeah. You bring up a great point because, it's like at the time it was almost like the artists were unseen. M T V Yeah. Showed'em a little bit, but it was like you didn't know who those artists were. I The first time I heard Madonna, I thought she was a black artist. I had no idea that she was Caucasian. I didn't know that.

Shay Leonia: 30:43

Yeah.

DJJonniBravo: 30:43

When I first listened to her but just the soulful sound that she was. Like Queen! I'm listening to Queen and I'm thinking this is like a like an urban band too. Because just some of the drum beats and stuff and that, and they weren't. But it's like we didn't have, there was magazine and stuff, but when you were a kid, you only had a couple dollars and we were lucky we could get like a 45 or a, cassette single or whatever, or CD single. Yeah. Not, during the whole album. And then for whatever reason, there was a time period where everybody was putting out a double album and you're like, wait a minute, I can't even afford a single album. And you guys are putting out double albums.

Shay Leonia: 31:14

Yeah.

DJJonniBravo: 31:15

But you are correct, because now it was something that was totally unseen. Now you have to be seen all the time where people don't know who you are. Which it just

Shay Leonia: 31:22

Exactly!

DJJonniBravo: 31:23

Is so crazy because back in the day those folks could care less that you even watched MTV or whatever. They wanted you to, but you had no idea who Madonna was, and you go out and you're searching for, and her song and her album and all that stuff. And then maybe you're getting a magazine and you're putting posters on your wall. Now it's just, you gotta be out there on social media like 24 hours a day, seven days a week, like touting your music. And then everybody's getting so desensitized to it that, oh yeah, we know you have an album out. Or whatever. And it's then you have to go to other means to try to drum up, I need somebody listen to my music. So then you need to go to a venue and do other things and do some of the things that you were talking about earlier.

Shay Leonia: 31:57

Exactly, and I think that's one of the reasons why H.E.R. Did a really great job. Whoever was behind this whole campaign about of her release was they created this mystery around her and this elusiveness around who she was. With the whole sunglasses thing. With just posting her silhouette in her earliest social media. And even the album artwork, it was very much who is this person? And so people fell in love with the music first, and then they craved wanting to know who is this? And then finally when she started making appearances with the sunglasses, and then slowly the reveal of having the frames where you could actually see her eyes. It was just this thing that people were just wanting it so badly just to know who she was. And that really helped her stand out from the crowd. But I feel like a lot of indie artists today that are just starting out are thinking maybe I'll try that tactic. But you know what? She already did it. So now you have to find something else. If you wanna go the quote unquote gimmick route. Which I don't think that this was a gimmick in a negative connotation type of way, but you can't just imitate what some other artist has done and expect it to work for you, especially if it's not reflecting your own authenticity.

DJJonniBravo: 33:11

you got a really valid point there. And it's still has done with some artists. Like they'll go on a blackout on social media or whatever, and then they'll come back. Then they're, listing certain things and you have to uncover certain things. I think that's why like 21 pilots so much because skeleton Clique trying to figure out when the album's coming out and when the,

Shay Leonia: 33:27

yeah

DJJonniBravo: 33:27

new single's gonna drop and then they send out maps and different, websites and people are researching and saying, did you see this? Did you see that? And you're like, wait a minute. I didn't even know there was a new single coming out. Or a new album or whatever. So it's good that mystery around bands like, and artists like H.E.R. And 21 Pilots are out there and even, Taylor Swift and others to figure out let's get back into this whole music scene again and really dive into it.

Shay Leonia: 33:48

Yeah. Absolutely.

DJJonniBravo: 33:49

Let's look at question six. What was your first music purchase? Was it vinyl, tape, cd, or stream? And where did you purchase your music?

Shay Leonia: 33:57

It was definitely cassette tape. I wanna say that it was Rhythm Nation, but I don't think it was because I think, again, like the convenience of having older siblings is that they already had everything that I wanted. And especially when it came to music. So I wanna say that my first memory of a cassette that I purchased was the single cassette of, You Mean The World to Me by Toni Braxton? I think that was my first one.

DJJonniBravo: 34:22

Toni Braxton. I remember seeing Toni Braxton in New York City with the Beauty and the Beast. we Rip on the nosebleeds and people were busting out chips and eating. I'm like, guys, I'm trying to,

Shay Leonia: 34:32

oh my gosh,

DJJonniBravo: 34:33

I'm trying to listen to Toni Braxton sing and you guys are like, chomping in my ear. What the heck?

Shay Leonia: 34:37

Oh my gosh. And her tambour is so low that it's if you're crunching on chips, you're a kid who drowned out the base of her voice.

DJJonniBravo: 34:43

Exactly. I was like, I want to hear Tony Braxton. Come on people, what are you doing to me?

Shay Leonia: 34:48

Oh, that's hilarious.

DJJonniBravo: 34:49

Toni Braxton

Shay Leonia: 34:50

nothing like a little chips and a Broadway show.

DJJonniBravo: 34:52

Exactly. Bring your chips, but bring your chips if it's a, like they're singing eat'em. Like when they're not singing, when they're doing dialogue. I don't really need the dialogue. I need the singing part.

Shay Leonia: 35:01

Yeah, exactly.

DJJonniBravo: 35:02

Or maybe I do need some of the dialogue. I don't know..All right, let's take another break. We'll be right back. Hang on.

Year of October: 35:24

You are still under the influence with DJ DJJonniBravo.

DJJonniBravo: 35:31

We are back. I'm DJJonniBravo. You're going under the musical influence of today's guest, Shay Leona, under the end of the Influence with DJ DJJonniBravo. All right, question number seven. And it's the question that everybody loves to hear. What's your favorite song?

Shay Leonia: 35:45

Oh, God. I was bracing myself for this. Oh, I honestly I don't know how to answer this because I've learned this about myself recently. I somehow feel like songs have feelings and I'm, I promise I'm not a woowoo person. But somehow whenever I hear a song that I haven't heard in a long time, I feel guilty, and I feel like, oh my gosh, I haven't paid attention to that song. I need to go listen to it so it'll feel better. It's just and I'm trying to remember what song I experienced that with recently. I feel like it was a Drew Hill song, I can't even I'm literally glitching. I glitch when I hear that question. I can't even answer it. I can't,

DJJonniBravo: 36:35

I will say something and then maybe it'll help re jog your memory. I was listening the other day, and OP P came on by Naughty by Nature..

Shay Leonia: 36:43

Oh my gosh.

DJJonniBravo: 36:44

And I used to play that song all the time. It was like one of the songs I used to always play DJing, and I hadn't heard that song in a long time. And I'm like, man, this song is so killer. I forgot how killer this song is.

Shay Leonia: 36:53

It really is. Yeah. And hip hop Horray, and, shout out to Jersey, I actually did a song with Treach years ago and it ended up being on his mixtape. I was so upset because the song, the guy that engineered the song, we were in the studio and I was putting on so many vocal stacks. That he was like, all right, I'm just gonna mute this stack right here, and then we can continue adding on, because I'm gonna have to mix them down and all that kind of stuff. So he, he mutes them. In the version that went on Treach Mix tape. The guy had never unmuted my stack. He also never mixed my vocals. So you hear like it's just so horrible. But then all of a sudden you get to the end of the song and there's like a minute and a half of dead air. That the guy just, I don't know what happened. I don't know if the engineer may be sent a rough to Treach or to Treach team, and then Treach was like, eh, it's just a mixtape. I'll just put it on without checking it. But unfortunately, that song ended up being so many different people's favorite song on the entire mixtape and Treach. It's Treach of Naughty by Nature. So he has some really hardcore fans, especially overseas, and they were loving this song, but I was mortified. I was like, oh my God, this is my first, like I'm working with a legend on a song and it's just mixed so poorly. It's not even mixed at all. And

DJJonniBravo: 38:19

oh my,

Shay Leonia: 38:21

It was just a nightmare. But that's me ducking and dodging your question about what my favorite song is.

DJJonniBravo: 38:25

So you're still ducking and dodging. I'll let you duck and dodge a little bit longer. Because you were talking earlier, when we first did the first question about the Pharcyde. Did you say Lords of the underground? Who else did you say?

Shay Leonia: 38:35

Oh, yeah. Okay, who have I worked with? So I've worked with Skillz, with Lords of the Underground with El Da Sensei from The Artifacts with Treach and Marley Marl. Who else? I've opened up for Raekwon and Keith Murray, but I have not gotten to work with them yet. Yeah, I think that's all the Monifah I've also worked with. Yeah that's what my brain is reminding me of at the moment.

DJJonniBravo: 38:55

Raekwon the Chef.

Shay Leonia: 38:57

Raekwon the Chef. Yes.

DJJonniBravo: 38:58

And Marley Mar. It's a Marley Mall remix. Single y'all. The Jingling baby. Go ahead, baby And she's still not gonna answer the question.

Shay Leonia: 39:07

I'm still not gonna answer the question. No, I, you know what? Because one of the songs is gonna hear me and they're gonna be like she loves me more than you. And they're feelings are gonna be heard whole. It's really toy Story. But with songs!

DJJonniBravo: 39:19

You can put your name in the bottom of the shoe of the song.

Shay Leonia: 39:22

Exactly.

DJJonniBravo: 39:22

Now it's gonna haunt you.

Shay Leonia: 39:24

It, I'm glad you understand.

DJJonniBravo: 39:25

I do understand. And you'll go down in history as the first person that, that doesn't answer this question. And I'm totally fine with it. There's nothing that says that you have to answer all the questions. These are just questions that we have, so you can answer, but it doesn't mean you have to answer. I'm being for real. it sounds like I'm being funny, and I, maybe I am.

Shay Leonia: 39:43

Are you a Seinfeld fan at all?

DJJonniBravo: 39:45

Yes. My, wife watches that. It's like one of her sleep time shows, so I'm always catching.

Shay Leonia: 39:49

Oh, I look, I have sleep time shows too. Tell your wife I said hello. I totally get it.

DJJonniBravo: 39:54

Yes.

Shay Leonia: 39:54

So there's this episode where George gets some guy, one of his coworkers disses him. And so then the whole time he's thinking, why didn't I have a good comeback? So then he ends up like literally taking a plane or driving. It's just like a whole adventure that he goes on to try to find this guy who's in another work meeting at another state just so he can roll up on him and be like, oh yeah they ran outta you at the jerk store, and it's just this awful moment. And so I just, I forget what my point was, but it's So I, oh, that's, that was my point. So once I say whatever I think my favorite song would be to you. I feel like I would get off of this interview and the whole rest of my life, I will be thinking, why didn't I tell him this song or this song? It's just, it's a whole thing. It's a lot of pressure.

DJJonniBravo: 40:44

It's not a too long of a drive from Philly. If you had to come to Richmond or we could just have another phone call, and you could tell me. No, it's totally fine. We'll go to question number eight,

Shay Leonia: 40:56

which I know,

DJJonniBravo: 40:57

which just adds to the pressure, right?

Shay Leonia: 40:59

It does.

DJJonniBravo: 41:00

Just adds to the pressure. So we'll go to question number eight and question number Question number eight is, what's your favorite band?

Shay Leonia: 41:09

Yeah,

DJJonniBravo: 41:12

hurt somebody's feelings. Y'all. Come on.

Shay Leonia: 41:14

I can't do it. I'm not even trying to People please here, but I really can't. There's so many. I was even trying to like, think, okay, should I take the James Varner route and list them by decade? But I can't. I can't. It's, there's so many. I'm really trying to figure out a way to even just throw some at you. Oh God. Okay. All right. Who do I have tattoos of right now? That's how I'll answer it.

DJJonniBravo: 41:36

Okay. Tattoos. That's good.

Shay Leonia: 41:38

Fricking a. Okay. And there's so many more to come, but this is who I have so far. I have Liza Minnelli on my arm. I have George and Ira Gershwin. I have Dizzy Gillespie. I have Rocky. So we'll mention the soundtrack there. I have Janet. I have Michael the Jacksons, of course, I have George Michael, and then I have Miles Davis. Those are who I have tattoos of at the moment.

DJJonniBravo: 42:04

Now you're gonna have me add an extra question to my list. what tattoos do you, what musical tattoos do you have? That's cool. So you have plenty of favorite artists and see that's it's any way to answer the question. Like James Varner, he did that question in the, genre of the nineties and the eighties and the seventies or whatever. So you just answered it in a different way with your tattoos and that is a good collective.

Shay Leonia: 42:24

Really the only fair way, it's the only fair way because even if I were to try to think of the nineties. I start thinking, okay, are we talking freestyle music? Are we talking grunge? Are we talking pop? Just oh, hip hop. It's too much. It's too much. It makes me sweat.

DJJonniBravo: 42:39

You got through it, you got through those those two hardest questions on the exam. So you don't get a good grade, but at least you got

Shay Leonia: 42:45

That's right. I'll take it.

DJJonniBravo: 42:46

At least you got, there's always, it's a commutative grade, so you'll be judged on just these nine questions. No it's fine. It's totally cool. It's, and whatever. And it's your style and it's your show and that's what it's all about. It's, some people think it's my show, I just come on, I'm like a guide and I just guide people along with the questions. And some of them, when we talk about it, it's, this is a hard question. The previous one was a hard question and people have, lovers of music have a difficult time with that. If you're out there just listening and you have the same artists that you listen to all over again, and you probably can be like, oh, it's, the Beastie Boys, or whatever. But, some people have trouble. They have trouble with this.

Shay Leonia: 43:22

Yeah. It really is. It's not, it's I don't know. I'm, maybe some people can right off the bat say what their favorite meal is, but I can't even think of what my favorite meal is. It's just so much pressure cuz there's so much variety out there. And there are songs that I hear that I'm like, I don't remember life before this song, even though I know this song only came out like last year. Or maybe I just discovered this song last month, but what was my life before this song? Because I will, on a sunny day I will get into my car and I will be able to roll down the windows and it's just beautiful outside. And all of a sudden I'll be like, you know what, Technotronic, and I'll put on Technotronic and I'll be like, this song is just hidden for this weather. And then all of a sudden the Technotronic will spin out into a whole bunch of other songs that I wanna follow after. So then all of a sudden I start stacking up my cue with all of the songs that I wanna hear in a row that fit this weather and this mood that I'm in, and the sense of gratitude that I'm feeling. And it can be the same way if I'm feeling like crap and I wanna, reminisce about an X and I just suddenly I'll just stack up those songs. And it's just they're all my favorites and they have all supported me in a very. Way in my life, in my mental health, in my career, in my pursuits, in my memories of my mom. Like they're just songs are so special to me. And that's one of the reasons why I'm so passionate about helping indie artists. Because so many indie artists think that their follower count on Spotify is what determines their success. But what they don't understand is if they let that determine their success, they're gonna end up getting burnt out and quit. And then people like me who need these songs to survive are never gonna get the chance to hear these songs. And when I say survive, it doesn't have to be like, oh, I'm making a song that's explicitly about someone's mental health and getting through. No, sometimes it could just be the existence of a song like, up, busy, do it. Get up and move that body. That could really make my day and Imwe all need you out here making this music. So that's my little soapbox.

DJJonniBravo: 45:32

You're You're And the part that I love about music is when I'm watching those shows or videos or whatever. The last one I watched was Taylor Swift. The one before that was Olivia Rodrigo. But I love it when people break down the whole album and they tell me about each individual song, cuz it makes me love that song and that album even more. And yes, I am blaring Olivia Rodrigo, she's on my

Shay Leonia: 45:56

go for it.

DJJonniBravo: 45:57

My favorite songs, I don't listen to Taylor much, but I know she's a great songwriter. And I think Folklore was on Disney Plus and I was watching that. I really enjoyed it. I just love when artists tell you about the songs, and you're right. It might not mean anything to me, but it means the world to you, and then it means the world to somebody else. And so you have to put that out there and find a way to do it. And back in the day, we're peddling it out of our trunk, and getting it out there to folks because we, or mix tape, like what you were talking about with Treach. There was mix tapes that were going around that you would hear. And you would hear artists from, and you would've never heard that song again. Maybe off the mix tape,

Shay Leonia: 46:33

Yeah.

DJJonniBravo: 46:33

But it gets people exposure. It gets people like you exposure. That just pushed you that much further. it might not have if you weren't on that song with Treach, embrace it. But don't just embrace one side of it. It really takes work and you really have to get out there and hit the streets and do what's required. my son always makes fun of me cuz we have these stickers for our podcast whenever we go out to eat, I'm handing these stickers out, but that's an audience that's untouched. They're not all my socials, and that's something that they'll listen to. they'll go on there and they'll listen to a couple episodes. I'm like, tell me what you think. And of course they never do. But anyway, they, I'm glad that they're listening and getting, hopefully getting something out of it. And it's fun to go out back into the place and we'll see a sticker which

Shay Leonia: 47:14

yeah.

DJJonniBravo: 47:15

Yeah. And you see the sticker and you're like, oh, cool. so then they're experiencing or showing it to other people. It could just be a sticker that launches your career. It could be a

Shay Leonia: 47:23

absolutely

DJJonniBravo: 47:24

t-shirt. You gotta think about what you can have out there, you never know. It could be a poster.

Shay Leonia: 47:28

Even if it's not affecting like my following in any way. It still feels amazing whenever my friend is visiting, anywhere in New York or if they're in Austin, especially the states that I know that I don't live in, and they send me a picture. Hey, this you, and I'm like, yep, that's me. That's my sticker on some random street in Austin while I'm sitting here in Philly. And it's just so cool to like to see my stickers get around. It's awesome.

DJJonniBravo: 47:56

Yeah. And even Young Blood is doing something with Adobe where they're like having people do his posters for whatever town, and then he's gonna in turn whoever wins, I guess that particular town, they're gonna sell the poster at the concert venue. So he's getting his, followers in with him to do a poster and be a part of the process. And we've seen bands do that. know, We've seen Bon Jovi do that with video cameras and they did a whole video. They had people come in with video cameras, BC Boys the same way, and other artists that do that, that get people involved. And that's the cool part of music. So not only are you into that person, but you're, look, I designed the poster, or this is the poster that I designed that did never got picked, here it is, or whatever for young blood. So you gotta keep that stuff going.

Shay Leonia: 48:39

Absolutely.

DJJonniBravo: 48:40

Are you ready for the grand finale?

Shay Leonia: 48:42

As I'll ever be?

DJJonniBravo: 48:43

All right, let's do this. How has music impacted your life?

Shay Leonia: 48:52

Whew. I was born, literally born into music, and it's with me every single day. you heard me say how much Ada I get in silence. I am one of those people that does not want to be alone with their thoughts. Cause I'm just craving when is the next inspo for the next song gonna come from. And not even necessarily to write, but just to listen to. my friends get this from me all the time where they'll just be talking to me about something and, oh, God forbid it'd be something serious or something I actually need to focus on. And they'll say a word or a phrase and it'll be, I'll just start singing a song that. I remember has that word or that phrase in it, and I will, it's like a jukebox. It's like somebody just stuck a coin into the jukebox. music is just such a part of my day-to-day. There's, eat, sleep, crap and music I really just cannot fathom my life without it, because in a very conscious, but also a very unconscious way, it's always there. And it was so funny because I'm very like one of my random facts about me is that I'm very big into genealogy. And so I handle a lot of the genealogy for my family. And of course, being a Jewish family, like there's a rich history there that's already established. But there was plenty of things that I didn't know. And so when I was researching, both branches of my family. Now on my mom's side. Jack and Nathaniel Sherson who are my great-grand uncles. They started one of the first music stores in Los Angeles when they came over from Lithuania and it was called Sherson Brothers Music. And they were responsible for being the first distributors of Sony in the US because at the time, the Japanese companies were not really doing too well in the US because of what was happening historically at that time. But my family decided to just put Sony out as an acronym. I can't remember what the acronym was for, but they lied and were basically saying it wasn't a Japanese company. So they were also the first transcribers of traditional Mexican songs. And they had a guy in the back literally writing out. The different notes and lyrics for these songs from Mexico and distributing those. And now you can find their guitars on eBay. It's wild. So that was happening in the early 19 hundreds from my family. Then I look on my father's side of the family and it turns out that my great-grand uncles, there were two of them, I believe Bernard and Marcus Hast were both famous cantors and Warsaw, and I was able to find their sheet music online. So when we talk about what type of impact music has on me. It's in my blood, literally in my bloodline. it's so fascinating to me. I'm so glad that I was born, when I was born to the people that I was born to because I can't imagine life without music, this being this impactful on me.

DJJonniBravo: 51:43

If you collect vinyl long enough, sometimes you'll get one of those stickers on the vinyl that says, say it, play it. And for you they're gonna say it and you're gonna sing it for me. They're gonna say it and I'm gonna play it because I'm a DJ So it's a little bit different there. But and we have something in common. I do genealogy too, and

Shay Leonia: 52:00

Really?

DJJonniBravo: 52:01

Yes. And I'm trying to get back. Now I'm working on my great grandfather and grandmother are from Poland. They were the first ones over here. And my grandfather was the first one born here, but he had a sister that was born in Poland cuz his mom had to leave her because she was doing farm work somewhere and the daughter was staying with family. So she left thinking, oh, it'll just be easy to get her and bring her over. this was 1913 that she came over. My great-grandfather came over in 1905 and then again in 1906. She didn't come over until 1951. By the time she came over, she was married. Oh, she had kid the kid had been married and she had kids. So it took that long because of, world War II for my grandfather to write letters and do that. So genealogy is another kind of way to find out about your roots and to find out about what you really care about and what your family really cared about. And that's just an awesome story that you can take with you, that you can tell your family about and other people. That's just awesome. The first record store out there in, in California.

Shay Leonia: 53:04

I'm not sure if it was the first record store. But I know it was one of the earliest record stores. They were definitely the first distributors of Sony and the Mexican songs. But it's crazy too because it doesn't even always necessarily have to go that far back. So all, there's this fascinating story of a few years ago, maybe it was like five or six years ago now. I was consulting with one of my cousins who helps me with the genealogy track. I was telling him about my maternal grandfather. my maternal grandfather was adopted. I figured that the trail stopped there and he implored me to keep digging. He was like let's look a little bit more about your grandfather. He pulls up this document and it's a marriage license and it doesn't have my grandmother's name on it, it's some other woman. And I was like, who the heck is this woman? So sure enough, he starts digging some more and turns out that my grandfather had a whole other family before he met my grandmother. so if you wanna insert some dramatic music here, like it's super soap opera worthy. then I figure, okay, the trail stopped there. He had two sons before he met my grandmother, and that's that. But of course those sons had children and one of those children who is my cousin. I was able to track him down on Facebook and we started speaking and immediately he tells me that he was a software engineer for ADR, a recording software for music. And eventually that software ended up being purchased by Roland. So,

DJJonniBravo: 54:44

oh man.

Shay Leonia: 54:45

Even when I was just connecting with random family that I never even knew existed that are my age. And we're very close now and this is the same cousin that's bringing me out to, to see Janet in Austin. We're very close now. And like when we first met I was like, are you kidding me? We're both into music. It was just, it was so cool. It was so.

DJJonniBravo: 55:05

that's that's really awesome, man. I'm glad that you could be here today. And I just, before we sign off and all that stuff, I want you to tell us what kind of music do you do what kind of music do you like to do and give us your socials and all that where we can find you, where the people can find you and get into your music and get into cuz you have a podcast and you have a

Shay Leonia: 55:24

Yeah.

DJJonniBravo: 55:24

A company and just all kinds of of things going on. So tell us a little bit about that stuff, where we sign off today.

Shay Leonia: 55:30

Oh, thank you. Yeah, she's a busy girl. my own personal music is what I call industrial r and b. I was once told that it sounds like Kelis vocals over nine inch nails beats, which I will absolutely take that. So if you're into either of those artists or you just wanna explore like a more trashcans style of r and b music, I'm your girl. You can find all of my music available on streaming. You can also just hit up my website, Shay Leonia dot com. I'm always on Instagram on TikTok Shay Leonia once again. And if you are an indie artist and you're looking for a way to create, a successful music career on your terms and you would love some support doing that, then hit me up at 44th Minute Media. I love supporting artists. You can al also tune into my podcast, the Millennial Musician Podcast, where I also dole out some. Some hefty advice for those same exact musicians, and I bring on a bunch of incredible guests that are gonna help us both learn along the way. So yeah I'm available everywhere. Just look up my name. She, and thank the Google gods you. You'll be able to find me.

DJJonniBravo: 56:32

people are probably listening to this podcast and be like, John and Shay were like way back. This is our first time talking like, we Imwe bit on the internet and through one of the podcast things that are on Facebook and she has to be a guest. I'm like, sure, let's be a guest. And so I'm glad that, you could do that and be here today. It's been so much fun talking to you.

Shay Leonia: 56:49

Yeah, likewise.

DJJonniBravo: 56:51

And having this discussion about music, something that, you know, both of us love and have a passion for. I wanna bring success to you and success to your music.

Shay Leonia: 56:59

Aw, thank you.

DJJonniBravo: 56:59

And to success to what you're doing for the indie artist and your podcast and all those things. Because a lot of people don't realize when you're creative and you have all these creative things that you want to do, that you're outreaching and you're doing stuff and you're doing other things, and it takes a lot of work.

Shay Leonia: 57:15

Oh yeah.

DJJonniBravo: 57:15

The least you could do is click a like, yeah. You could share it with somebody else. You could push it forward. Say, Hey, you heard this song, doing those things. Have you heard this artist?

Shay Leonia: 57:24

Mm-hmm,

DJJonniBravo: 57:25

get the folks into it. Get the folks out there because you might be that bridge to me knowing a new band or a new artist. Exactly. And there have been several people in my life that have done that.

Shay Leonia: 57:34

Yeah.

DJJonniBravo: 57:35

Yeah. So definitely glad that you could be here today. Thanks for going under the musical influence of today's guest, Shay Leonia and Under the Influence with DJ DJJonniBravo. Go under the influence on Instagram at DJ J O N N I Bravo underscore under the influence. Contact us by email at DJJonniBravo dot under the influence@yahoo.com. Check out my other podcast with my son, Hero Chat Show. Please subscribe to Under the Influence with DJJonniBravo wherever you listen to your podcast. I'm Jonni Bravo. I'll see you next time. Goodbye.

Year of October: 58:56

You are no longer under the influence with DJJonniBravo until next week.