- It's all about marketing years
had to find your niche.
They're out there, and if you do it on a global scale,
you're gonna find them. - Jason Davis is a versatile songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and the front man of the Jason Davis band. Drawing from influences that span classic rock,
grunge, and southern music, he creates a distinctive sound that connects with diverse audiences, lending authenticity and creativity to keep the spirit of rock music evolving
for a new generation. - Every song has a story. Everything behind that song has meaning.
“If you want to do it, you need to put the time”
and to do it. AI is already here, if you're not taken advantage of it, you're doing yourself at the service. You have to start with a good product. - What is the blue ocean strategy for musicians?
- Does it good question? (upbeat music) - It spans the globe, like a super high school, into their buildings. - Ready?
- All right. - Today, Apple is going to reinvent the platform. - It's our overlap, I'm telling our weird. - The living your legacy podcast,
for those who live, to leave a legacy. (upbeat music) (crowd cheering) - Oh, that is sensational, dude. (crowd cheering)
Open, shake up on with the lead. - You say, Paul, in the box is not on the planet. - You can live your dream. - Welcome back to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast
for Inside Success, I am Regulars. Joining me today, fresh off his operations CEO episode. We just filmed his Jason Davis of the Jason Davis band. How are you, my friend? - I am good man, how are you?
- Fantastic, thanks for asking.
I am delighted, 'cause finally, a real artist, a musician
on the show, and I was like, oh man, this is gonna be cake.
“We're gonna just talk about the best thing ever.”
- Isaac, I'm all about that, I'm all about that. - But before we do, what can we learn about you in your operations CEO episode? Give us a small preview. - Well, I say a little bit about
where I came from, why I do what I do, why I started playing music. Kind of an all-in-compassing beginning to end. - Well, operations CEO, which means you're a vet. - Where did you serve?
What's your background there? - I did 25 years in the Air Force, hell yeah. - Air Force did, and as an officer, and it was all gonna do to hang on that last five years. - Wow, wow, walk us through 25 years and 25 seconds.
- So I listed 95, I came out of college, I had three years done, but I felt like I was a spin in my wheels, sure. So when I was growing up, my dad was in the military, I've got relatives in the military too.
So I knew I needed to do that. And once I enlisted, I found my home, really. It was what I was looking for, I like the structure, like the whole thing. So I ended up transitioning, becoming an officer,
and just, you know, did the whole career thing. - It's also that you were looking for structure, 'cause a lot of musicians, even though musicians enjoy structure, 'cause of music composition, you gotta get it anyways.
But as an artist, you don't think artists and structure, but you were quite the country. You actually went a full paid scholarship to college. - That's right. - And then you went to serve.
A lot of folks don't do that. - That is, my artist journey was different than anybody else's. Like most musicians who were doing the bar gigs, you know, and they started doing all that. I did that, but I also had a day job.
My day job just happened to be the Air Force. - Right on.
- So I've always been in a band.
I mean, even on some of the deployment locations, they had brought in baby and like the organization. - Right on Davis, it donated to us a whole lot of music equipment. So my friends and I put in a band and put a band again, and we played music at a deployed location.
- That's awesome. I was gonna say, what do you think it is about music? It's such a dumb question, but it's a great set up, 'cause I'm thinking about Johnny Cash playing in prison. And I'm thinking you being in a marching band,
and like there's that rhythm, that pattern, and there's that floaty music.
“So connect for me, indulge me if you want to connect music”
and serving in the similarities of formality and structure. - Well, that actually is kind of how I look at music too. Music for me has always been therapy. I like to look at a song. If it speaks to me on whatever level,
you know, maybe it's the song itself, like the music, maybe it's the words, the lyrics. That's kind of how I look at music. And I look at service the same way. I wanted to make the world a better place.
I wanted to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. I wanted to be a part of something bigger. I do that with music as well. You know, it's just it all ties together for me. And my head is, it's not any different.
- I got to ask a 95 versus 2025. Did you ever think you were going to be sitting in a podcast in South Beach in 2025? - No, no. - I've been doing the music thing for a while.
I'm expanding into other things, but after I retired, I needed something to do. And I was like, "Lory, now we're going to, we're actually going to take this seriously, and we're going to start doing this full time."
- Yes, sir. - It's hard to start something from the ground up, but with the right marketing and all the courses I'm taking, I learned how to market myself. I'm marketing the music and get it out there.
And so now I actually have a fairly decent following. - So, right on, so let's talk about the definition of making it.
Because I heard you see that in your interview,
and I come from the music world from behind the camera and to front of the camera and to behind whatever instrument. I love that I come from the music video world, like a director back when being an MTV director
was a thing. That was my thing. - Making it back then is different than it is making it today.
“What is your definition of making it as a musician?”
- Making it is different for everybody.
For me, I've never looked for fame or riches,
although the riches would be nice. I've always looked at can I do this and make a living doing it? - Yeah. - I don't even need to make like a super crazy good living
as I just wanna be able to make a living at it. - That to me is making it as well as can I get on stage with a band and throw down the show and everyone's as vibrant and just chill in it and do love and everything that's going on.
- For musicians in musician, and I'm about to do my quest in 2026 when I'm like, "Why am I gonna take it serious too?" But my hurdle, what the hell am I gonna sell? Like what is me?
Like there's no money in music. There's probably some money in merchandising, but you need an audience in a community before you can monetize and create merchandise. So for someone in your position,
how are you monetizing? How are you making a hustle? What is your day today? - Yeah, a lot of it is merch, but you have to build your fan base.
Once I get the fan base to a certain thing, a certain level, your merch starts to go up and then your shows, you can get more shows at a higher rate.
“So that's kind of how fast routes you have to do it.”
If you're doing it by yourself, you're spending all that money, but it's the same in result, whereas a record label is gonna spend that money, but then that's their money. And you get like, here's some, oh yeah,
but if I do it right, it'll be all my money. - Oh for sure, but that's the thing, you know, a lot of musician artists that I were like, well, I've got social media and I've got this amazing camera in my pocket that happens to be a phone.
It also does make the, I guess the space, very noisy if you catch my meaning here, where it's like, now everyone can be a musician,
and it's like, I always like preach,
there's a difference between a cinematographer and a videographer. There's a difference between a musician and some dude that can randomly play four notes over and over again. So like, how does one break through the noise and go,
I am product market fit? I know that my sound matches my look and my look matches this really unique clientele. That is out there, what is the blue ocean strategy for musician today?
- That is a good question, yes, still fun to figure that out. - Oh, my, my music has such a wide range of genres. - But on that, one of my music marketing mentors, so does he, and, you know, you, the triple, you know, the rock stuff,
the hype up, the other stuff, and you hype up. Whatever your current thing is, there's a fan base for it. - Yes, sir. - Okay, these are country songs. I need to market to the country audiences
and this more in the van. That's cool, but then I've got this grunge stuff that I can market to people who are into 90s grunge. - Yeah, go to the national and then go to Chicago. - I mean, you know, it's all about marketing.
There has had to find your niche. They're out there and you can do it on a global scale. You're gonna find them.
- Yeah, there's seven, what 8.7 billion people on the planet.
All you need is about 100 to the thousand people a month that just kind of generate some money. - There you go. - That's right. - And they've got a fan base.
- Once it does, I mean, if it takes off in another country, I'm okay with that, you know, you used to have a joke and in a van I was in, oh, you know, we're a huge in Asia. Dude, David Hasselhoff was huge in Japan. - I'm Germany.
- Yes. - Yeah, Germany, correct. - I'd be okay with that, I'd be perfectly fine. - That's okay with me.
“- What is your definition of what future music is like to you?”
Is it all, it's got to come from the soul? Or maybe it's a little robot that has a link to my soul can help out. What is your perception of the reality of future of music? - And the productivity is AI's already here.
If you're not taking advantage of it in some way, you're doing yourself a disservice. I used Chad GbT to help me with ad copy. Oh, yeah, and I learned that from Rudy. - You, wherever he is, you used the tools that you can
by my songwriting partner and I sometimes will write a song and well, what does this sound like, is this genre? What does this sound like in this style? Okay, well, that's cool and it'll give me ideas. So yeah, you can run from it screaming
or you can utilize it as a tool. - We're not just like anything else. - Sure. - We're not just software, is it tool? When Pro Tools first came out, everybody's like,
"Ah, I ain't doing that, that's a new fangle thing." Now, I want anything to do with it, everybody. This is Pro Tools. - Oh, yeah. We're on 12 in Washington.
If you walk down just one block on 12 in Collins, there's the Marlin. That's a hotel that's been here forever. There's a secret recording studio in the back. - Yeah, yeah, third eye blind, that's a mixing studio,
not a recording studio. So third eye blind, mastered, and mixed their album there. There's a lot of hits. And then, and two, across the street, used to be mentioned.
I used to go on tour with Velvet Revolver. So I actually film slash. Like, I'm a pit filming, and he's just like,
Sweat stripping on me, because I'm like,
on your slash, I'm what happened to sure I have footage. So when I have a musician here in spirit, I'm like, dude, you've come to the right place, 'cause there's a lot of music, a lot of energy here. And Miami used to be big on metal.
Like, a lot of great metal bands in Miami. You know, churchels is coming back now. That's a great venue, and what now is winwood. But a lot of cool music is here. And I'm kind of eager and kind of like waiting for Miami
to come full circle, even though, you know, urban. And like, reggaeton's big, but metal. And there's a lot of anger in Miami. Where does your music come from?
“Is it love, is it peace, is it darkness, is it healing?”
Historically, it was always, it was a darker.
I mean, I've been right in socks since high school. Right on, if they weren't really good, but I wrote them. I wrote a song, sitting in church, about Daniel chapter five. (laughs) And this is an amazing song.
Yes, sir. I've written songs about the lowest point in my life. Brand new day is, is that song? Everyone is a love letter to my wife. So, every song has a story.
Everything behind that song has meaning. I get it out, whatever it is. I gotta get out, I'll start getting it out through song. Yeah, for musicians that are listening, that don't even know their musicians.
How does one know they've got it? Is it like listening to music? And their body just kind of told, like, jolt's in a way. Like, how does a musician know that they're a musician? I kind of always dug music before I started playing.
And I had a drive to learn how to play, but guitar just wasn't for me, man. Really? And not at that age, not at that age. Sure, do it now, but not when you're 12.
And you get a acoustic with strings off the fret more than high. It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We talked about piano, yeah, you know. It's like the fundamental piano, yeah. I knew I was a musician.
And then I just needed to find my first instrument,
my breakthrough instrument.
That's real, right? Well, it was yours. Yeah, drums. Oh, rhythms, I mean, one. So once I get into that, eventually I was like,
while I went on had a play base. So I did that. And because of that, my guitar playing got better. And then I started playing slag guitar. And then I started doing like this other stuff.
Like, I learned a lot from the stones, Keith Richards. He plays a lot of open tunings and slight stuff. And it's just, it opened up a whole new world, you know? Well, you mentioned 12 years old, not playing a guitar, but now you can't, do you think these instruments
sort of kind of find you as you evolve throughout your life? I think they do. They don't stick to it. Tis will get a guitar or they'll get, you know, something,
or they'll, he won't stick with it. Because, I mean, maybe it interests them two years ago. They're not going to be a musician. Those of us who have that need, where the ones in the bedroom playing for hours
and hours and hours, trying to get better at it. Right.
“That's how we musicians, that's how we look at it.”
Yes, sir. And everybody does. So triple M is the musician marketing and mentoring. Is this kind of like your triple tight trifecta?
Like, there's a way to always make a hustle
in the center of it as music and healing. I mean, I started out recording in studios. It still had tape. But the home version of that was a task M. It used a regular cassette and it was for track.
So two in the front, two on the back, and if you try to play it without that task M, you only heard two of the tracks. I mean, every mistake you can make with that, because if you made a mistake with tape,
I guess what, you can't pull that tape on. It looks like it's going to sound like that. Well, but that was my start. And I've gotten pretty good at it over the years. Somehow, I convinced Berkeley to give me a master's degree in it.
(laughing) So it's nice for you to know what I'm doing now. And I like to help other musicians who are in the same boat that I was, best my next big project is helping those who want to put their music out there.
And they've been trying for years, and they've spent $1,000 in the studios. I can tell you right now, the big studios aren't doing anything different than you can do on. Oh, yeah.
They're not. I can show you how to do it. So that's kind of where I'm wanting to move into is the mentor part of it. Or none.
I have some friends that I help with marketing. But there's so much more that I know because I have made all the mistakes. Yeah, yeah. And you're gonna, I'm sure you're gonna continue
making more mistakes. We're gonna make tons more success stories for all those mistakes. Hopefully. Oh, cool.
Any words of advice or anything to encourage folks or listening and watching about becoming a musician? I'm really going for it. The time is now, any words of wisdom?
“If you want to do it, you need to put the time in to do it.”
It's an actual business and you have to approach it that way. Oh, yeah. You got it to get serious. This is my job. I get a buddy of mine.
He's like, well, this is my time. This is the only time. So you have to get to that point. Like, I'm at that point. I'm in.
I'm all in. And be humble. Like, walk into venues. Do you got a ship for six in the afternoon? When you know no one's gonna watch,
but the promoters gonna enjoy the fact that someone's keep the room in warm. That's exactly right. No matter how big you think you are, no big, just walking their bumble out.
Yeah, don't get an attitude. Don't walk into some place and be like, don't you know who I am?
No.
No.
No, nobody knows who you are.
Is it matter of fact? Get out. You know, and they don't, you don't have to be there. It's not even about that. But it's really understanding.
All right, now I'm a musician. I'm going to grab math and sound and make it my own. And then regurgitate it and call it something else. And people are going to listen to it and enjoy it. It's funny how people don't know what good music is,
but they can really tell what bad music is. What is it? What is a good producer tip? If you are trying to record your own stuff, mix and master your own stuff,
produce your own stuff. You have to start with a good product. You have to get the recording right. You can't throw garbage on tape. And it's production is so huge, right?
It's just like all this stuff. It has to be done while it's quality and. All right. Otherwise, get garbage out. So get that part right.
No, sir. I can teach you how to get that part right. That's great. Man, that's so cool because it's so necessary. No, because there's a lot of coaches out there that don't
“comprehend, you have to do what now with an amplifier.”
Like, yeah, I grabbed this analog mic.
Hold it up to an amazing amplifier.
I just ruined from a lot of the instructions. You see, because I learned on YouTube, so now when I was trying to learn. No, but a lot of them are just so far over everybody's head. And they're like, they have all this knowledge.
It's amazing if they can't teach it. No, you know, because I watched a few and I'm like, I don't even know what you're talking about. I've got three masters degrees. And they'll sit there were like 20 guitars in the background,
a grand piano, and there was like what? And it's perfectly lit. And it's like, they're really douchey about it. Yeah, yeah, see it. I don't like that.
No. You go into the studios and you get the attitude and they're like, oh, these guys, I mean, come on. I can teach you how to do it at home for your design to suck.
You're supposed to suck a thousand in one time. So that a thousand in second time. You're like, there it is. That was the one. That's the one.
That's the one. And there's no stress if you're doing it home.
“That's why I like to, I mean, I got a full set up at the house.”
Bruton, but I like to try to record every day if I can. At least something cool, because I'm so far behind on recording, and we're trying to get everything out set up that you tend to lose sight of what you're actually doing. I'm going to leave you with these words, because I'm in the production.
I'm in the production process, and I am all about quality. But I'm also understand what it is to chase dopamine as a musician. Or it's like something happened to me and I want to express myself through writing. And then I can take hours. I can take weeks.
I can take months because you're producing this great track. And I'm now on Sonos V5. I'm not sure if you're familiar with Sonos. And it's really just a thought. You type it in.
You grab your JTBT. Here's my thought, and you have your little demos, which is what I call my JTBT, write the song. And it's a poetic song from a moment, and then you drop it into your Sonos. And you can generate at the very least a timber, a dopamine moment, where you can express
yourself and publish without the long of out. Yeah, it's all about getting your ideas down to certain thoughts down at least. Don't lose it. Don't lose it. And then once you have the idea, then you can continue work on it.
Take that in the studio, take that to the piano, take that to a guitar. Whatever it is that you're doing. But if you're chasing just content, put it up there. Yeah, just look at yourself like an artist. You have to.
“If you want to do music, guess what you're an artist.”
But you also understand that now, things have changed. It's not about creating that, you know, perfect 12 track album. It's not even about releasing single three piece. It's really you are a conscious of of of content, product creation. So if you have the ability and the flexibility to just grab an app, type, and spit, and
produce and publish, that one track can generate five plays or five thousand plays. But that took you five minutes to create. So once you remove yourself and release some of that anxiety, that dark emotion, where it's like, I'm going to pour my heart and soul into this. Someone wants to listen to it.
Who cares? Just keep pumping out content. Yeah. That's something that I've learned. It's all about content.
Because you have to as an artist. Deloque socials. I mean, that's that's not my generation. So I'm having to learn that on the fly, but you have to keep everybody engaged. You have to let them know, hey, I've got this going on.
If you want to get that connection, that's where you're going to get it. You know, all these bands in the 80s and 90s, months, years to create the perfect album cover. Now it's just like, that is a cover for this piece of content. And if you don't get it right away from seeing it, and then you click through that moment is the album now.
Yeah. So that's just been condensed and compressed into moments as opposed to months. That's exactly right. Yeah. So if you don't comprehend.
If you don't comprehend. Yeah, which in hindsight has removed the us leaning into the big labels and the AR guys, all that has washed away and it's really just, all right, we're going to only two big labels now. Yeah.
Really.
And there's a billion independent.
Oh, for sure. But I mean, two big labels I said. What is an RCA in Sony? I forgot. Yeah.
It's the two big dogs. And they can basically consume everyone. And there's like one or two AR guys per label now. It's a completely different world. So if you want to become a musician, get ready.
It's going to be scary. It's going to be lonely, but it's going to be so much fun because so much fun. It's just all new. It's all fresh. Everyone's still trying to figure it out.
And now we've got Sonya's on the way. And it's like Napster by Tommy's a million.
Think about that.
Any closing comments?
How can people find your music?
“Learn more about you and discover you, my friend?”
Absolutely. The Jason Davis band.
I'm out on all streaming platforms.
Check me out on Spotify.
“All my social media is or the real Jason Davis band and more to come because there's a new”
album coming out.
Get on my Instagram at the Real Jason Davis band.
All my announcements are going to be on there. That's my main one. Right on, check it out. Cool man. Quite the EPK.
“Hopefully we're developing here for the Jason Davis band.”
Absolutely. Don't much content. Thank you so much for your time and energy, my friend. And of course, go out there and break the leg. This is the Jason Davis band.
And I am the regular terrorist solo act. And we are inside success. (upbeat music)
