THG86 | Arieas "AJ" Lee & Mike Izzard

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[00:00:00] DJ And?: Good afternoon, welcome to the Hilltop Glove Podcast. I'm DJ Anwet. I'm joined by a special guest host today, Javo. How y'all doing? How y'all doing? Javo actually was one of our guests before in the previous season, so we're actually happy to have him back here on the episode to actually speak with some very distinguished guests that we have with us today.

[00:00:19] DJ And?: In the background, I do have Skip and Tamaya there on the cameras. Making sure that they capture everything, make sure the content is looking great. So I'm just going to go ahead and bring us into this, man. Today we are thrilled to have AJ and Mike from AudioBox Studios as our guests. The studio has become a household name in the Charlotte, North Carolina area known for its exceptional work with local artists and hosting network events, various industry professionals.

[00:00:42] DJ And?: They have even worked with big names such as 50 Cent, Fantasia, DaBaby, and more. AudioBox Studios is also home to DaBaby who got its start here. The studio is not only about music though, but it's about giving back to the community as they run a summer program for kids. If you're curious about what they do, please check out their [00:01:00] Instagram.

[00:01:00] DJ And?: Also, join us on this episode and as everybody knows, please join us as we dive into this world of music with AJ and Mike. I want to thank you all for joining us here today. Yes, sir. How are y'all doing? Doing great. Excellent, excellent, excellent. Yes, sir. Man, we appreciate you all being so poignant and on time.

[00:01:18] DJ And?: Oh, yeah. We always, we, man, we love to see that. We in the business. Yo, you can tell. In time is money. You can tell. I know. This is our fourth season and this is going to be basically, this is the salvo for our season. It's the opening shot. And so what's really cool is to sit with other business individuals, folks who are like minded and about getting stuff done.

[00:01:35] DJ And?: And so we are here today in a beautiful location and we do want to shout it out real quick, man. We are at Carroll Mountain Health Park. Yeah, man. Here in beautiful Gastonia. North Carolina. I have to say that because we were here a few weeks ago to work at a well, we were working in a, in a sense at an event that was put on for the community.

[00:01:52] DJ And?: And so we have been back and forth between Charlotte, Gastonia and Columbia recently. And so it's nice to actually [00:02:00] sit down. And talk. Yes, sir. And of course, I think you all know something about this gentleman that's young 

[00:02:06] Arieas "AJ" Lee: man right here. 

[00:02:08] DJ And?: I just want the audience to know. Hey, just before y'all say, Hey, I think you know them already.

[00:02:13] DJ And?: Yes, we're gonna go ahead and put that out there. I guess we, we always start off with this question. It's a very baseline question. And of course, it makes sense. Who or what influenced you all growing up? And the reason why I have to ask this is because as The generation that you all are from is the generation that, of course, we end up looking back at.

[00:02:33] DJ And?: Come on, we want to know, how do we do this? We want inspiration. So, what inspired you all? I let 

[00:02:39] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Mike go first. 

[00:02:42] Mike Izzard: I got a lot of inspiration. I was waiting for you to say 

[00:02:45] Arieas "AJ" Lee: that. I knew that was coming. 

[00:02:46] Mike Izzard: I go first. I guess it would be a hometown band that I used to look up to when I was younger. Used to go and basically go watch them practice because I was too young to get in the club and things like that.

[00:02:56] Mike Izzard: But I used to just go watch them practice and that's what [00:03:00] inspired me to get into it. And years later when I got a recording contract and went to New York. Found out that the record deal that they had I end up getting because rap was coming in and R& B was going out So it's kind of funny to you know, look up to someone and then the next thing, you know you're in New York and you find out that you know, the person used to look up to you're actually still in the In the place.

[00:03:24] Mike Izzard: They're taking their place. 

[00:03:26] DJ And?: What was the band if you don't mind me asking? 

[00:03:28] Mike Izzard: Purefire What? 

[00:03:30] DJ And?: See this? I know it's for real. Okay. I'm gonna have to look that up, check that out and see what it is. So, that caught me off guard because, of course, this is a good thing. Man, y'all are pretty good on the internet.

[00:03:40] DJ And?: Y'all like ninjas. Y'all are hard to hammer down, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did not know that you, yourself, had a record contract. Two record deals. 

[00:03:51] Mike Izzard: First demo I ever sent off to anybody. Time I sent off a demo. Got to a recording deals one with a polygram in the United States and one with [00:04:00] a criminal records in London So, 

[00:04:02] DJ And?: where are you from 

[00:04:03] Mike Izzard: originally?

[00:04:03] Mike Izzard: Kershaw, South 

[00:04:04] DJ And?: Carolina Hear it

[00:04:09] DJ And?: in the voice So from Kershaw you ended up getting up to New York start that was a start yes, okay, how about for you AJ 

[00:04:17] Arieas "AJ" Lee: I'm from the church, man. My dad, all his brothers in the quartet group. So, oh, wow. I'm, I'm in the basement with him in rehearsing, you know, they, they, they showing me everything from the jump.

[00:04:27] Arieas "AJ" Lee: My, my uncle Steve, rest in peace. One of the baddest jazz guitar players right out of Charlotte, North Carolina. You YouTube and Google them. First person I knew had a home studio. And so he would let me come in and play around on his drum machines, like the little 8 pad little drum machine. At least the sound.

[00:04:44] Arieas "AJ" Lee: I don't know what it was, but I wanted to do music and he saw it in me at an early age. So he was the first person to embrace it and say, come on, you know, nephew, come on. You can, you know, I didn't want to go outside and play. I wanted to come to you. I wanted to do that. So from there I probably was in every little field of music.

[00:04:58] Arieas "AJ" Lee: I was an artist. [00:05:00] Producer and then followed in engineering where I felt like the void was in the Carolinas. So that's kind of like where I took off with engineering and then ended up owning a studio in Columbia, South Carolina. Shout out to Quantum Beats, my partner, Aaron and Sharla linked up with this guy right here.

[00:05:16] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Yeah. And it's been up. All the way up. 

[00:05:19] DJ And?: Yes, sir. So question just, just to jump back on because I wanted to start off with just some of that introduction information from Kurt Kershaw. How did you get into the rest of the scene? 

[00:05:33] Mike Izzard: I think of what it was is that once I had the two record deals and got cheated out of everything.

[00:05:39] Mike Izzard: I said, let me get into building so I can learn how to build my own studio because I didn't have any say so when I went to somebody else's studio. It was always changing the music. Whatever got me in the door and help me sustain, you know, the whole journey of going through the recording process. So I said, well, let me learn how to, so I said, let me get [00:06:00] a job building on first year and then at nighttime I work on my music and I've never pushed a record since

[00:06:10] DJ And?: All right. I wish what you just said, I'll bottle that up and I'll beat people in the head with it. And what I mean by that is what one thing that we've ran into specifically when we do this podcast and just talk with folks out in the industry and creatives, et cetera, is not understanding the need to have the ability to fuel yourself.

[00:06:28] DJ And?: I mean, you all know where I'm coming from. Because 

[00:06:32] Mike Izzard: a lot of artists that AJ and I run across, they say, you know, I can't. working, working my craft at the same time. So I'm quitting my job. I mean, I just got off work and just made it here and then got to go again tomorrow. So we still work seven days a week.

[00:06:47] Mike Izzard: I mean, it don't stop. 

[00:06:48] Arieas "AJ" Lee: It don't 

[00:06:49] DJ And?: stop. Yeah. And that's something I think a lot of artists. Speak to this on this, because this is right on your money. This is right where you at. 

[00:06:56] Big Javo: Yeah, man. Big shout out to Mike and AJ, man. Ultimate professionals. [00:07:00] Ultimate professionals. I've actually had a pleasure of getting to watch them.

[00:07:03] Big Javo: To AudioBox in 2017. They had the red room and the 

[00:07:07] Arieas "AJ" Lee: blue room. Yeah. Oh yeah. And they're here right in 

[00:07:10] Big Javo: the blue room. And you know, a person coming from Augsburg, South Carolina, St. Matthew, South Carolina country. Never seen nothing like this before. LED lights bottles everywhere top of the line recording equipment.

[00:07:21] Big Javo: It was kind of funny because the first time I called they was like, yeah, you'll be recording with Willie Frank. I'm like, really Frank,

[00:07:36] Big Javo: but now I'm ever since then, I just want to be able to, and I'm just glad I'm able to be here today and tune in and all. Get these guys their flowers, 

[00:07:44] Arieas "AJ" Lee: man. We appreciate you, man. Yeah, man. Really locking in with us early. Early. Believing in the vision that we had early. You know. Used to 

[00:07:50] Mike Izzard: be there all the time.

[00:07:51] Mike Izzard: Yeah, yeah. I'm saying it your way, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

[00:07:55] DJ And?: You in there. All right, good, good. Because I know for a lot of folks, when it [00:08:00] comes to doing music and being a creative in the industry the idea of having to put forth raw, hard effort before being able to then be blessed with the time to be a creative is something that a lot of people don't want to do.

[00:08:15] DJ And?: This is one thing I know when we ask folks, so how do you do what you do? How do you start from the bottom and then bring it to the top? And this is what our, our program is about is explaining to people those necessary techniques and tools that you have to have to succeed. So the fact that you all are still working, even though for most folks in our community, you all have reached a modicum of success, what is it that fuels you to continue to do that work day to day outside of.

[00:08:43] DJ And?: The fun, quote unquote, creative process of making music, being around artists. What makes you say, you know, I'm gonna get up, I'm going to work today, 

[00:08:50] Arieas "AJ" Lee: just trying to always for me and Mike has always take it to the next level. With this music industry and this music business that we're in, it's always evolving and changing.

[00:08:59] Arieas "AJ" Lee: So [00:09:00] that's a good thing. Cause we don't get bored cause it's always going to change. It's always going to go to another. genre of sound or whatever. We have to do the look of the studios, the equipment, and it's just so much that changes so rapidly now that we have to almost. Keep up with and not move too fast too.

[00:09:19] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Cause you know, you can jump to the newest technology too fast. So I'm not ready to bring it. Yeah. So we kind of balance each other out like that. Cause he wants to. Soon as they want 

[00:09:29] Mike Izzard: to say, cause you're the building. So I'm always ready to 

[00:09:32] DJ And?: be ready to go. 

[00:09:34] Mike Izzard: I'm like, Mike, believe it or not. We got a lot of stuff that we done bought that I haven't even got to.

[00:09:38] Mike Izzard: And I still say, well, AJ, you know, we need to go ahead and get this new computer. The Super Pro Max. 

[00:09:46] DJ And?: Let's 

[00:09:47] Arieas "AJ" Lee: get the bugs out first. Let them have it for about a year. You know, we'll get back to it. But now just. 

[00:09:52] DJ And?: It balanced out good. I was about to say you all work well as a team. Oh yeah. Yeah. We've 

[00:09:56] Mike Izzard: been working together for eight or nine years.

[00:09:57] Mike Izzard: Never had 

[00:09:58] Arieas "AJ" Lee: an argument. And we committed to being [00:10:00] number one. That right there alone drives me and him every day, no matter how frustrating it gets, 

[00:10:06] DJ And?: How hard, you 

[00:10:07] Mike Izzard: know, studio has to be, it's not the money, it's the studio. Yeah. 

[00:10:10] Arieas "AJ" Lee: So that, that alone drives us every day, you know? So, 

[00:10:14] Mike Izzard: yeah, definitely. But to us, it's almost like, you know, almost like a circus.

[00:10:19] Mike Izzard: Because we're always entertaining. I mean, we may have a big guest coming. We may have the stuff like that. So we got to set the lights up and you got to set the sound up. We got to get food, drinks, ice, and you know, the music's got to be right. So it's like entertaining. I mean, you know, and it's a show. 

[00:10:35] Arieas "AJ" Lee: And that's one thing a lot of people say about Audio Box is the vibe.

[00:10:38] Arieas "AJ" Lee: You know, it's man, it's the vibe there. Vibe is, y'all can host events in California, there's not many studios you could 

[00:10:44] DJ And?: do that. You have 

[00:10:45] Arieas "AJ" Lee: people fly in. Yeah. From 

[00:10:47] Mike Izzard: Germany and all over the place, man. I mean, we've had the CEO of Backwood all the way in from the UK and you know, to us, that's, you know, that's big, you know, whenever you get someone who owns, owns about 84 UK,[00:11:00] 

[00:11:03] Mike Izzard: fly over to meet us and congratulate on us as far as helping them promote their products and stuff like that, we have several different brands that we represent. I saw that. And that's something to us that, you know, we kind of felt early on was important because it's more to it than just running a studio.

[00:11:20] Mike Izzard: We kind of look at like, Why don't we get into advertising or helping other people push their brands. So there are certain brands that we want to go out to a red bull. So we're on that team and also back there, so, you know, we're talking to all the CEOs. We don't just work with them, but we know. The owners and yeah, 

[00:11:40] DJ And?: you all have actual business relationships with the individuals to work together in a partnership way.

[00:11:45] DJ And?: No, not a it's tit for tat. It's not that you're getting something out of it and they're not getting anything from you 

[00:11:51] Arieas "AJ" Lee: shared relationship. They're watching and they normally they see we see what you guys are doing. We think this would be a great partnership. We [00:12:00] go from there a lot of times. So I have to go out searching.

[00:12:03] Arieas "AJ" Lee: This is the way that When Mike started it with the way he promoted the studio, it was just like all the pictures. 

[00:12:13] DJ And?: I know other studios really were doing it like 

[00:12:15] Mike Izzard: that. But what caught me off guard, because I really didn't know how I got into it, but Chuck T was saying, you know, Mike, I remember when you first came to Charlotte, you was a photographer, you know, and I said, What now?

[00:12:24] Mike Izzard: Yo. But I start out being a photographer because that was my end game. How to get in, you know, the clubs and know everybody and all that. 

[00:12:31] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Yeah. You put a camera around your neck, they, yeah. Come on 

[00:12:34] Mike Izzard: in. Be quiet. Right? Really? Oh yeah. So, you know, I've got pictures of where AJ too. We got pictures of everybody from DJ ca to everybody.

[00:12:42] Mike Izzard: Everybody you know, Kim Kardashian, Nicki Minaj. I mean, we've met all these people in our journey and it was just. You know, we had all that planned because we wanted to show people that, you know, this is where you want to be at. And you made 

[00:12:56] DJ And?: it a place for people to venture to. It's a destination. Yeah. I [00:13:00] like to 

[00:13:00] Arieas "AJ" Lee: tell Mike, like we're the hub right now.

[00:13:03] Arieas "AJ" Lee: So that's how I kind of agree, you know, describe what we got going on. It's like, that's just, we're the hub. So everybody come through and network and everything. 

[00:13:12] DJ And?: So, I mean, 

[00:13:12] Mike Izzard: you are not lying. So, AJ and I, mostly AJ, but yeah, I mean, we stay in contact with Honor Taylor and the Baby and all of them. So, I mean, we still do work with them, you know, we're proud of them.

[00:13:22] Mike Izzard: We're not taking their credit or nothing like that, but to see somebody that, you know. I used to be in the studio playing ball because we have a basketball goal. Absolutely. 

[00:13:32] DJ And?: Really? Oh, man. 

[00:13:33] Mike Izzard: Okay. But to see, you know, the baby in there that used to shoot, you know, basketball and all that. Now, you know, he's world famous and stuff and to be in Vegas and actually see him on stage and call out my name and stuff, I'm just, I'm just, 

[00:13:47] DJ And?: I'm really, yeah, I see what's all right.

[00:13:49] DJ And?: Putting two and two together. Yeah. Wait. That's crazy. So. If you could for me, because of course we're going to ask you a question about entrepreneurship because we want to ask this. But how did you, how did you all develop some of [00:14:00] these relationships that you had in the sense of allowing people to know that it's safe for them to come to your studio, produce out of your studio and that the product that is coming out of studio will be something that can be taken to the next 

[00:14:09] Mike Izzard: level?

[00:14:10] Mike Izzard: Well, I think AJ. From the beginning, he always said, let's just keep it corporate. Don't let it get too far out of hand. And that's something that we paid attention to because you can let a lot of people in the studio, which like I said, you know, lots of nights were sold out and things like that, but we don't just let any, any and everybody come in and that's a process that, you know, we have to stay on because you can very easily.

[00:14:36] Mike Izzard: Somebody rent the studio or come have an event at the studio before, you know, you know, there's a hundred people outside. I mean, we've had nights where there were hundreds of people outside. Yeah, we have major artists coming. But it was cars lining all the way up to the spotlight. And you know, you see, the, what's it called?

[00:14:50] Mike Izzard: The Sprinters. The Sprinters. So when you see about seven or eight sprinter vans lined up, I mean, you know, I think our highlights when we had like 10 [00:15:00] different artists there, 2019 was the last 

[00:15:02] Arieas "AJ" Lee: CIAA, 2018, 2019. 

[00:15:04] DJ And?: We 

[00:15:04] Arieas "AJ" Lee: had from 

[00:15:06] Mike Izzard: QC, we had little baby dog, Gucci man, Sweetie, Dirt, 

[00:15:10] DJ And?: Vaughn, they're all at the studio.

[00:15:13] DJ And?: At the same time. At the same time. Block Boy Jay. 

[00:15:16] Mike Izzard: J. B. J. B. Yeah, Rocco was there too. Yeah, it 

[00:15:20] Arieas "AJ" Lee: was just, it was just like Ghana. We looked at each other. I think, I think we, we on to something. 

[00:15:26] DJ And?: Yeah. Yeah. Y'all. Yeah. Y'all 

[00:15:28] Mike Izzard: definitely. Y'all. Yeah. That's when we start saying where the world play. 

[00:15:31] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Yeah. And this is 

[00:15:32] DJ And?: where the baby got signed.

[00:15:33] DJ And?: So it is, yeah, that's before that 

[00:15:35] Arieas "AJ" Lee: time. So we definitely we just proud of the work we put in and, and. Just like I said, we're not going to stop. We're going to continue to build. So that's, that's number one thing we want people to know. We're going to continue to build. We're not comfortable, 

[00:15:46] DJ And?: you know.

[00:15:47] DJ And?: You aren't going to rest on your laurels? No, no. It's not time for that. I'm trying to elevate. Still work seven days a week. I know y'all aren't playing. And that's 

[00:15:53] Big Javo: just one of the things that attracted me to Audiobox too, because it's the, they got a nice probably a nice studio. And I know. I know you said [00:16:00] Charlotte, but I feel like, you know, that audio box, one of the top studios on the East coast.

[00:16:03] Arieas "AJ" Lee: I believe, 

[00:16:04] Mike Izzard: you know what I'm saying? But it's amazing to hear, you know, people from Memphis, that you know, a lot of groups that come from Memphis. They love the studio. They're coming in. We need one of these. Let's say, 

[00:16:14] DJ And?: yeah, everything that you all have in y'all, in you all studio. Like when I looked at it, That's what, all right, I'm gonna have to

[00:16:20] DJ And?: I need to come, Hey, I know this though. Fish tank, right? I need, I need, I need to comment and get a calls, get from Mike about the fish tank. 

[00:16:27] Arieas "AJ" Lee: What's, what's with this fish tank. He sent me a picture, I think we need this fish. He sent me the picture, something this long. I'm like, what is that? 

[00:16:35] Mike Izzard: So I ended up getting two zebra eels about, they're about as big as your wrist there and about three foot long damn matching.

[00:16:41] Mike Izzard: So I said, Hey, we gotta have these What? I said, you know. I know it looks on 

[00:16:46] Arieas "AJ" Lee: you, but when people come, there was in there last 

[00:16:48] DJ And?: night. I was there. It was like, 

[00:16:49] Arieas "AJ" Lee: what is 

[00:16:50] Mike Izzard: that? I say, yeah, that's because we want to come up with a place that it was almost like a man cave, but at the same time. You could, you could go in there and cook.

[00:16:58] Mike Izzard: We have a confectioner [00:17:00] oven, we 

[00:17:01] Arieas "AJ" Lee: have a you ask what made people like, feel, you know, like, for this, the go to studio? Yeah. It's because we make them feel like they at home. Right at home. If they there, shh, go in the refrigerator, get you Yeah, man. You know, we ain't, nah, you at home. You know, so, the chefs come during our events, Wow.

[00:17:18] Arieas "AJ" Lee: And, like I said, it's just a different vibe. We try to provide a little bit of everything along with the music. And 

[00:17:24] DJ And?: I've had it's at a metropolitan level, right? And what I mean by like cosmopolitan, like worldwide, it doesn't matter where you would go. If you went to a good studio, this is what a good studio looks like.

[00:17:33] DJ And?: And I can tell that from the equipment that you all have, the engineers that you have working in there. And 

[00:17:38] Mike Izzard: that's how we end up getting a 50 cent at the studio. He wanted to come to a central location so the radio station could come there and interview him. So they interviewed 

[00:17:46] DJ And?: him at you all station?

[00:17:47] DJ And?: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I have to say this too, because I know I come back for the show and I'm always listening to the radio and I'll hear them talking about No Limit, Larry, et cetera. That's my guy. See, that's what I was about to ask about, because you all host these [00:18:00] events. Right, right. That are basically...

[00:18:02] DJ And?: These are producer events. Oh, yeah. Could you explain a little bit about that to the, so our audience can hear that? So, so 

[00:18:08] Arieas "AJ" Lee: we in collaboration with Backwoods, we were doing a monthly I would call them networking events. And so we would do basically the artists spotlight the artists and they come network perform you know, and the producers were kind of there, but they were kind of on the sideline.

[00:18:23] Arieas "AJ" Lee: They didn't have a... So I said, Mike, maybe next time we need to switch it up. He said, well, let's do a producer and highlight the producers because they don't have a, you know, So we started doing producer. events and it turned into like almost like beat battle competitions and no limit Larry was hosting them and, and the turnout was so crazy and the talent that came out of it.

[00:18:46] Arieas "AJ" Lee: I was not in Charlotte. It was out of everywhere. We got people. It was incredible. Who flew all the way from, 

[00:18:53] Mike Izzard: drove all the way from Oklahoma. Oklahoma. Yeah. And we had somebody else drive from somewhere else, like just the talent 

[00:18:59] Arieas "AJ" Lee: that we were able [00:19:00] to pull just word of mouth. Yeah, yeah. So from there, it just kind of took off and producers were looking for it.

[00:19:05] Arieas "AJ" Lee: When the next one we actually, I think we're going to go back to that next month. We were just talking about that yesterday. So yeah, the producer one, it was very big. And like I said, we never heard of anybody highlighting the producers and me being in the studio as an engineer. Yeah, I know. Without that 

[00:19:21] DJ And?: beat.

[00:19:22] DJ And?: It ain't nothing. It ain't got nothing. Without that beat. Without that juice. 

[00:19:25] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Let's highlight the producers. Let's get them some shine. And really let them know, you know what I'm saying, that they're important. The most important to me, but you know, aside from the engineer, but 

[00:19:33] DJ And?: you know. You gotta have an 

[00:19:35] Mike Izzard: engineer.

[00:19:36] Mike Izzard: And we've had engineers come out, producers come out of that, you know. They've got going and platinum records, you know, and they started out here about students. Not only that singing careers 

[00:19:47] Arieas "AJ" Lee: and DJ careers I can say it's just interesting. I could tell you one quick story. I started off Recording the baby in the very beginning.

[00:19:55] Arieas "AJ" Lee: We was doing mixtapes and he was doing Jack beats and stuff I had some called [00:20:00] baby talking so we was doing those And so I was in a session with him in what we call the red room, like you said, and matter of fact, I'm going to swap that around. I was in the red room with Anthony Hamilton and Willie Frank, who was in the blue room with the baby.

[00:20:15] Arieas "AJ" Lee: So Mike, this is when the baby was on his rise, Anthony Hamilton didn't know who he was. So Mike said, let me introduce you to this guy, this young man right here. So they come, the baby, Anthony Hamilton meet right there at AudioBox and to see them on the Grammys performing together. A couple of years later, I was like, man, this is unbelievable.

[00:20:32] Arieas "AJ" Lee: And the people don't even know, I don't know that background story. Yeah. So I get to see that just to, you know, be a part of that. That was history for, for the city of Charlotte and state in North Carolina. It's definitely, 

[00:20:42] DJ And?: yeah. I was watching it now. Yeah. Are you ready? Now I know the background story.

[00:20:46] DJ And?: Exactly. Because you always wonder, like, how do these people meet? Where do they come together? Yeah. And you don't realize that there's a central location that they all came to, that they come out to actually hang out and talk. You don't realize when these things 

[00:20:55] Mike Izzard: happen. So. And even with AJ, I mean, you know, I have to give him some credit [00:21:00] because he did a project with a.

[00:21:02] Mike Izzard: Casey and Charlie Wilson and Johnny Gill, baby. I've seen that baby saw that I was in the studio when he actually recorded them. So I have to take my hat off to him because I think that was some type of award, like three board, three platinum artists on one R and B artists and one song or something like that, but it wasn't a war or that was, and I also He did another song, Fantasia, that was on her album.

[00:21:25] Mike Izzard: I love Fantasia. With her momma, so. Her momma can sing too, so. So 

[00:21:29] DJ And?: that's for real, kind of, the fruit 

[00:21:30] Mike Izzard: don't fall far from the tree. No, that family's real tight. I'm actually gonna be working with Rico this week, coming up. Her brother. Her brother, yeah. So we're real tight with them, and just to see all the people that come through there, I mean, you know, it's just amazing to us.

[00:21:43] Mike Izzard: And we look at it like, you know, it's 

[00:21:46] DJ And?: supposed to be. Yeah, it's the normal day to day. And they put the trust in you. And I guess this leads to this question what are some of the hardships that you all face while starting your business? Cause I know we talked about a lot of cool stuff, fun stuff, but this is stuff that especially millennials.

[00:21:59] DJ And?: [00:22:00] We need to hear this. So we understand like when we, when we bump our knee, come up, we bruise and we got to wipe ourselves up and start, you're fine. Like you can do it. Yeah. One thing I 

[00:22:08] Arieas "AJ" Lee: tell people when I talk to a lot of young kids, producers, artists, if they can kind of understand the process of even becoming successful, it's, it's not easy.

[00:22:18] Arieas "AJ" Lee: And it's. Failure involved. There's no way really to avoid. I always say all those people you see on tv that made it Why they always have a story all of them They always have a story where they fail and they thought it was over they was gonna give up and then Bang something happened and they can rise.

[00:22:35] Arieas "AJ" Lee: So that's what I tell them. It's gonna be like that That's just a part of the process. So if they understand that it's going to be hard in the beginning When it hit him, it won't, you know what I'm saying? They won't have 

[00:22:45] DJ And?: that, that draw back to the point where, 

[00:22:47] Arieas "AJ" Lee: yeah, they can't bounce back. See, me and Mike, when we came in, we always worked hard.

[00:22:52] Arieas "AJ" Lee: So, failure or hard times, that was nothing, not to me. I know it wasn't to him. So, just to keep up and keep going and, and [00:23:00] believing in the vision. 

[00:23:01] DJ And?: Any specific story about a, about a hardship that you all faced where you were like, Hey, you know what? I don't know if I got to recalibrate and go a different direction.

[00:23:10] Mike Izzard: I can't look back. See what I'm saying? That's all I'm saying. I can't look back. I'll leave that alone. 

[00:23:16] Arieas "AJ" Lee: We, I mean, we had minor, I wouldn't say super major issues, but just minor issues. Trying to find the right staff, the right group of people. That's 

[00:23:23] DJ And?: understandable. In a business way, yeah. As an entrepreneur, yeah.

[00:23:26] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Really just dealing with a lot of different personalities on a day to day. You can imagine like. For me as an engineer, just I could go from gospel artists at 10 o'clock in the morning to a live band at two o'clock p. m. And then around seven, eight, nine, I'm trapped out. Dang, 

[00:23:43] DJ And?: that's 

[00:23:43] Arieas "AJ" Lee: tough. It's just like dealing with a lot of different personalities and knowing how to like, Really say, okay, this is what I want to do.

[00:23:49] Arieas "AJ" Lee: I need to really adapt to being able to deal with different personalities on a daily basis. So all at the same, at the same. Yeah. So if you want to be engineered, that's one thing I would, [00:24:00] you need to learn how to deal with a lot of personalities. I didn't 

[00:24:02] Mike Izzard: do it. I used to, I used to be an engineer, but I'm watching AJ and I'm sitting there day after day.

[00:24:08] Mike Izzard: Bob, I can't do it. Yeah. 

[00:24:13] Big Javo: That's what they call a million 

[00:24:14] DJ And?: dollar engineer. Yeah. You were an artist. 

[00:24:18] Mike Izzard: So, and I was a good engineer, but once I got into construction and spent so much time doing construction afternoon, I just didn't feel like, you know. You know, I mean, I still know what it's supposed to sound like and all that, but you can't tell them nothing if you don't know how to run Pro Tools.

[00:24:34] Mike Izzard: So I'm just like, I'm not going to learn that because let me be an exact producer or something. But yeah, when it comes to just engineering, that's, that's not for me. I mean, you know, I think, you know, my calling was to build a studio and to work with these different brands and 

[00:24:47] DJ And?: stuff. I was about to ask you, can you talk to our audience a little bit about the skill that is required in building a studio as well as when it comes to picking.

[00:24:58] DJ And?: actual equipment, because this is [00:25:00] something that blows people's minds. Like, yo, you actually. This is what you need to build a studio. This is the equipment that you're gonna need. This is what everybody asks. This is the number one question. What do I need to do it? So, if you could give us just a, I guess a small bit, a glimpse into how your mind works.

[00:25:15] DJ And?: Well, my 

[00:25:15] Mike Izzard: expertise is in building and designing. I mean, I'm good at, you know, sound deadening. Killing reflections and things like that and absorption and stuff like that. So that's what my skill set is mainly on. I know how to engineer and everything, but I choose not to do it. Simply for the fact you can't do everything.

[00:25:32] Mike Izzard: I mean, a lot of people look at the music business, like it's just three rows, gospel, R and B and a rap, and there's so many other avenues out there to go in, but concentrate on that. Me, I love all of it, everything, but.

[00:25:50] Mike Izzard: Probably bluegrass, but, but I know music very well and I listened to everything that everybody else listened to. I mean, you know, they might think I'm out of touch because I'm not in there recording, but [00:26:00] AJ is the person who really, get the equipment. I mean, there are some pieces that I may point out or something like that, but my thing was always into building and designing.

[00:26:08] Mike Izzard: I kind of came in with an MTV crib mindset. 

[00:26:11] DJ And?: I see not to make a beautiful space. Oh yeah. 

[00:26:15] Mike Izzard: So basically I started out with the kitchen. I said, let me put the kitchen as a centerpiece and then we'll fill out from that. So, excuse me for the microphone. And we'll build out from there, but I didn't want the studio to look like nobody else's studio, but because I worked so much, I never really got to another studio.

[00:26:30] Mike Izzard: I really never been in maybe only one studio that was like reflection, but I really never went to two or three studios before I started building. I wanted to have something fresh and something was different. And I think that's what gave us the edges that most studios are built by people who just build houses.

[00:26:46] Mike Izzard: And I knew if I wanted it to look and, and feel like something different, I had to just Come up with all all new ideas. So I would pray about two o'clock at night God will give me the idea and I'll come [00:27:00] back and do it and even now Wow I look up at the ceiling and stuff and see how symmetrical everything is.

[00:27:05] Mike Izzard: I know I couldn't have done it without him So so so I think I will have to give him the credit for it because if you really look at how Symmetrical most of the stuff is and the color schemes and all that I could already, 

[00:27:17] DJ And?: I'm going to the studio. 

[00:27:20] Mike Izzard: You know, you got to look at, it's got two full bathrooms and it's got a whole kitchen in it.

[00:27:24] Mike Izzard: It's got a basketball goal. It's got a quarry a minute. It's got a, it's got a media room. It's got a, you 

[00:27:31] DJ And?: don't have a media room now. Yeah. Yeah. That's yeah. Oh, he built it. I helped clean 

[00:27:35] Mike Izzard: up a

[00:27:38] Mike Izzard: dozen spots. But you'll be surprised at how many people come up to me, man. I remember when I used to sit on a buck and just watch you just do this and that. It wasn't nothing here, but this room here. So to be able to connect with people out, even though I don't remember a lot of them, but a lot of them said that was there in the beginning.

[00:27:52] Mike Izzard: And when they say that was on the, and I know, you know, but, but it, It took everything I had to do it, but I had [00:28:00] to I had to pray about it. And that's what the success of it was, is to be able to pray about it and get the ideas from God and then just, you know, go from there. But yeah, we had a lot of obstacles and things like that, but everything I went through, I tell people everything I went.

[00:28:16] Mike Izzard: I was supposed to go to everybody who didn't work out, it didn't work out for a reason and God showed me that, you know, this person wasn't supposed to been a part of it. So it was a lot of shaking in the beginning as far as shaking, you know, the wrong, wrong people out of the way. And AJ came and we're going to have two or three words and we knew right then we was going to do business.

[00:28:34] Mike Izzard: And man, 

[00:28:36] DJ And?: so tell our audience the importance. I keep hearing this. I just want you all to, to step on this a little bit more. Like I said, I don't mind beating dead horses. I got you. Could you tell them about the importance of God and what you all are doing? Because you are making sure that 

[00:28:49] Arieas "AJ" Lee: we hear that.

[00:28:50] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Oh, yeah. No, no. God got to be the center of everything you do. It's just, first of all, it keeps you grounded. You got to be humble at times. If you're an [00:29:00] artist, you got to know to be on your artist's time. But at the same time, you got to have some, you got to be humble too. And you know, everything we do, we walk around like.

[00:29:09] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Regular. You know, I can tell, you know, I can tell you there's a world famous audio box that they ask. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, nah, we, we put in that work so we not above anything. Mm-Hmm. , you're gonna see me taking out the trash, sweeping and Yeah. And doing all that stuff. And, 

[00:29:24] Mike Izzard: and he does most of all the work at Audio Box.

[00:29:27] Mike Izzard: Everybody thinks, because I'm on Instagram, but I'm pushing buttons and all that. Nah, no. I'm more or less, you know. into the advertisement, things like that, and actually being able to deal with, you know, heads of labels and things like that. 

[00:29:42] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Yeah, definitely. Like I said, you, you put God first and then you put in that work.

[00:29:46] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Watch what happens. Watch what happens, you know, and a lot of times people ask us, you know, as far as with the studio or they say, man, I'm trying to be like you, I'm trying to be, you sure 

[00:29:58] DJ And?: you want to, you want to work? [00:30:00] This is a lot of work. 

[00:30:01] Arieas "AJ" Lee: It don't take no day. My phone ring every day. I got to answer my phone and my mom on vacation.

[00:30:06] Arieas "AJ" Lee: I got to answer my phone. I mean, I can't turn my phone off and go off the grid. Yeah. You know, so yeah, you want to, okay. I 

[00:30:13] Mike Izzard: mean, I think one of the biggest things for me is that when I first started, I was willing to a big borrow, steal from any and everybody. But what I realized I was asking everybody, but God.

[00:30:25] Mike Izzard: So I thought about it once I hit rock bottom, you know what I mean? I actually hit rock bottom and I was just like, you know what I've asked everybody, but God, once I asked God for, for what I wanted, everything turned around and everybody who wasn't supposed to have been. You know, they understood, you know, I mean what I had to pay their money back or whatever.

[00:30:44] Mike Izzard: I was willing to do that because I understood that, you know, you couldn't just ask different people stuff because people with money are different. Yeah. And the first time you say, can you drop a drool? They change like that automatically on there. Let me not talk to [00:31:00] this guy no more, but it didn't matter to me because I knew what the outcome was going to be.

[00:31:03] Mike Izzard: So for me, I'm not a prideful person. So. I saw you had good realms like you had some money and you want to invest, but what I learned is better to save your money and do it yourself versus to get the wrong people involved in it or to waste your time trying to fast track it. And the amount of time it took you to go through the whole process, you could have saved up the money did yourself and, that's what was the most important thing to me. That's what God showed me that, you know, all you had to do was ask me and he did it better than I ever thought it could be, because I didn't know what it's going to look like when I first started it. But. Even though my landlord said, man, I didn't know he was going to do all this.

[00:31:41] Mike Izzard: I didn't know I had the money to do all this. But that's the main thing because I hear people always saying, well, I need to invest. I need to invest. I need a manager. That's what a lot of people think. But you don't need a manager. You need to just manage your money and plan everything out and pray about what you want and get it.

[00:31:58] DJ And?: See, I'm not going to lie to [00:32:00] you all. This is something I know I was dealing with recently. There's some issues that was going on. And I was like, you know what? A lot of people don't understand the need for you to be able to provide for yourself. It goes back to that saying, you know, God helps those that help themselves in a sense of matter that not that you have to do everything with what you have, because sometimes you're going to need extra, right?

[00:32:20] DJ And?: But as we say, you go and you ask God. And then from there, you got to make sure that you are sticking to a discipline routine. Oh, man. That part right there. That breaks everybody, specifically in the creative world, dealing with music and etc. Dancers up to artists. They don't realize, alright, I'm not doing something right now.

[00:32:40] DJ And?: Discipline wise, there's something that's missing that is not allowing me to get that edge. I need to get over 

[00:32:45] Mike Izzard: it. And it's just simple stuff, just like being on time. I think that's the main thing. If you can be on time, then at least you've got the right... Attitude. Attitude. Yeah. But, you know, we have a lot of people come in 30 minutes late, an hour late.

[00:32:57] Mike Izzard: How do y'all handle that? There's nothing wrong with it, but. [00:33:00] I'm never late. I try to work 

[00:33:02] Arieas "AJ" Lee: with them. I understand, you know, as a business owner, it does cost us and it, and it throws off, you know, the next person. So gotcha. 

[00:33:10] Mike Izzard: One person late and your whole afternoon is 

[00:33:13] DJ And?: pushed back. Believe me, we, we understand that as a production.

[00:33:16] DJ And?: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:33:18] Mike Izzard: So how did you all get into what you are

[00:33:25] DJ And?: doing? Wow. Well, I will tell you this, this is actually, this is a passion project. Okay. 2020, of course, pandemic, et cetera, was going on myself. I was DJing. I was living down in Charleston. Okay. Right. Everything was shut down. Right. My brother, Skip, Kev, he was up here. He was in Columbia. And we were having a conversation on the phone.

[00:33:44] DJ And?: It's just about, like, things that we like to do, the fact that we like talking to folks. We, we like networking because this is one thing that we found. You don't have, basically, business cards of everybody in a role that's, You see who's here. Best thing to do is to go out and network. Go talk with people.

[00:33:59] DJ And?: Rub [00:34:00] elbows. See, see what's going on. And so since we couldn't do that in the traditional sense, We said, we don't, we don't, and I always like this thing like this. We don't just think about the problems, we solution oriented. That's it. So he says, so what's the solution to this? They said, you know what? Since everything's locked up, they started popping out all these technologies where you can basically have these conversations virtually.

[00:34:21] DJ And?: So we decided to come up with an idea for a podcast to help with it, almost like a, a, a knowledge based digital investment into millennials. Because one thing that we kept seeing was that a lot of millennials. We wanted to do things, but we didn't have the ideas, mindset or tool work, the tools to actually get it done.

[00:34:41] DJ And?: And one thing that we always remember from our parents and our grandparents is like, well, if you don't know, ask. And so like, so who do you ask? You ask people who are what? Specialists, who specialize in doing something. You ask those people that have done it already, that have made the work and got the effort.

[00:34:56] DJ And?: So you can see, okay, so when you were making bread, What kind of yeast did [00:35:00] you use? What kind of flour did you use? What kind of pan? How do you get a darker loaf as opposed to a lighter loaf? How long do you let it rise? What's the proof in time? What is proofing? And so we decided to go out and find people who are in specific areas and say, hey, we're gonna figure out how you specialize in doing that and we're gonna spread this knowledge to the rest of Millennials because a lot of us, we're scared to ask people because we're always told that we're supposed to know how to do it.

[00:35:23] DJ And?: That's a lie. That is a lie. You are not going to know how to do everything from the ground up. You have to start somewhere. Someone's going to have to at least give you or feed you some kind of information to help you get going. And so from there, we started with virtual interviews. All kinds of people.

[00:35:38] DJ And?: We're talking about people who work in the South Carolina State House. Coroner's office people who run businesses about financial fiduciary planning, et cetera, like that. And we realized that people were really interested in this stuff. And the information that we were learning was not just edifying to the people who were listening, but it was also edifying to us.

[00:35:55] DJ And?: So after a while, we were kind of pouring into our own tool bucket and we were making sure that we [00:36:00] were filling ourselves up too. So we were like, you know what? We're going to keep this going. 

[00:36:03] Mike Izzard: But how can we help you out with that? 

[00:36:05] DJ And?: Hey, I will tell you this. One of the biggest things that we ask folk for, or, Hey, we need places to record our podcast nice locations, specifically ones that are unique.

[00:36:15] DJ And?: help with that. And then also, if there are folks who need to get their name out, we have a nice network now from Charlotte to Columbia, Charleston and Atlanta, then we can definitely help market and advertise for those folks as well. Specifically have people who are trying to build a name. And this is one of the reasons why we're here with the folks were here today with because of that.

[00:36:37] DJ And?: And growing up and listening to certain shows and stuff and knowing certain people and knowing what they're doing like, Hey, How can we make sure that we're that blessing to other people as well? Because we don't like to take, we like to be able to do reciprocal 

[00:36:48] Mike Izzard: business. So we're going to be building a podcast room and we'd love for you to...

[00:36:52] DJ And?: Would you invite us to do some podcasting then? Hey, we 

[00:36:56] Mike Izzard: would love to come. It's been on the schedule for a year and a half. I'm going to get around to it. [00:37:00] Hey, look. But we already got, I mean, we done already paid for a lot of the stuff. Well, we already got stuff. I just got to get in there and do it. You know, we got, I 

[00:37:07] DJ And?: trust and believe I've, I've witnessed your work.

[00:37:10] DJ And?: I see how you get down. I know you are not going 

[00:37:11] Mike Izzard: to play with that. By agents. We ain't buying nothing until we get these cameras up, you know, we've accumulated a lot of equipment and we're ready. It's sat in there for a while. We had to actually move a lot of boxes out. We had the event because we've got the equipment at a mic stand.

[00:37:32] DJ And?: Well, I'll tell you like this, we got some folks that know how to use that equipment. Okay. And we'll come in and make sure that we're not wasting your time. Like I say, 

[00:37:38] Mike Izzard: we buy it, but I don't know how to use it. 

[00:37:39] DJ And?: Hey, that's what, hey, that's what, we'll, we'll jump in. I have no issue with that. 

[00:37:42] Mike Izzard: See, one thing about AJ, he can tell you anything you want about a computer, so.

[00:37:46] Mike Izzard: Yeah. That's, that's one good thing. A lot of people from other studios actually come to AJ. They, hey, how can I set this up? How can you set this? But we help them, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, definitely. 

[00:37:56] DJ And?: And that's, man, that's, man, that's a bonus. I'm going to tell you like this. Whenever you're able to do [00:38:00] something and be successful, but also reach back and help others without fear of it causing you any, that's how you know, you're doing the right thing, you know, you're doing the right thing.

[00:38:08] DJ And?: I will say, all right, so I have two other questions for you all. Okay. Please jump in. My fault. I'm up here because I, I'm, you know, I'm going to keep talking, but we have to ask this just because I know the audience wants to hear this, but out of all of the artists that you all have worked with.

[00:38:22] DJ And?: Which one gave you the best experience and why, and you all can have different answers. I 

[00:38:30] Mike Izzard: don't know, man. Any, how big it's not, it's just that character. I think it would be a black boy. JB. He was running from the law when he was actually in our studio.

[00:38:44] Mike Izzard: That's really him, but he made an impression on me. I mean, it was a good impression, but we've had bigger artists in there, but I think he made the biggest impression on me. I mean, because I mean, we've had off of everybody and you know, God, you know, 

[00:38:58] DJ And?: God is my favorite. I seen you. I [00:39:00] see. I see. Yo, yeah, 

[00:39:02] Arieas "AJ" Lee: yeah.

[00:39:03] Arieas "AJ" Lee: I think for me was this Casey from, from Jodeci is yeah. And I would say that because I, and I told him, you know, when he was in the studio recording and I'm like, I trained my ear to y'all. You know what I'm saying? I grew up listening to y'all and that's where I got my ear for music. You know what I'm saying?

[00:39:20] Arieas "AJ" Lee: So to be sitting here working with you now is so crazy. And you're asking me, should I hit it like this? As I'm, you know, and I'm like, no, I was thinking like, and he, okay. And I'm like, wow. You know, so that experience alone was just like, okay, this is worth, you know, everything that I've been working for, you know.

[00:39:38] Mike Izzard: And I would say the same too, because when I was younger, you know, Everybody in the neighborhood tried to be like KC and Joe. You gotta hit 

[00:39:46] Arieas "AJ" Lee: the ooh yeah one time. 

[00:39:49] Mike Izzard: But to actually, you know, I built his studio at his home. But to actually be there. Seriously. Oh yeah. So to be there on a day to day basis with him, and he'll call me up from time to time.

[00:39:58] Mike Izzard: Michael, just come check [00:40:00] on you, you know. Y'all really building good 

[00:40:02] DJ And?: relationships. Because 

[00:40:03] Mike Izzard: it's just like, we used to be trying to sing like him and then, you know. Mm hmm. You are in his house and whatnot, and you become family. So he might call me up every two or three months and just to check on me, or I call him, you know?

[00:40:15] Mike Izzard: Mm-Hmm. Yeah. TA's the same pay and Tasia the same way. You studio, we did her studio. Studio studio. We did her last studio, and I did her first, but me and AJ did. The second A. J. came set up a lot of stuff. Oh, 

[00:40:26] Arieas "AJ" Lee: yeah. She's 

[00:40:26] Big Javo: recording. That's just one thing. I'm really proud. Mike, just being the same person every time you 

[00:40:33] Mike Izzard: come across.

[00:40:33] Mike Izzard: See that. And I hear that a lot to me. I don't know why I'm doing it, but they said, man, you're so nice to me. I promise you, man. I'm sitting on that bucket. I mean, 

[00:40:40] Arieas "AJ" Lee: thanks. Because they 

[00:40:42] Big Javo: never get too high. They never get too low. Yeah. You go It's never a point where you see them being lazy, you know, that's, that's one of the, that's one of the other guys.

[00:40:52] Big Javo: I knew nothing about it Before I met Willie from Yank 

[00:40:56] Arieas "AJ" Lee: my His first [00:41:00] name. His first name. His first name. 

[00:41:01] Big Javo: but before I met those guys, man I knew nothing about music. Everything I've learned everybody I interact with. All came through all the audio box. And I'm more impressed about the people that they produce out of there.

[00:41:12] Big Javo: Their own employees, you know, their employees are people that come and use the studio. They said they put got 20 worked out of there. Which has got a couple. Jetson,

[00:41:24] Big Javo: Nate. And the fact that I was in the studio actually while these people in here working a lot of stuff, it just, it's more inspiration than anything. You don't go, when I tell everybody, you're trying to do something, you don't go to the small part, you go to the big part. You go, you find the best you can do, and I actually found AudioBox on Google.

[00:41:40] Big Javo: I said, I want to do music, I googled it, popped up five stars, saw the pictures, came right on in, got the number, and I tell everybody it's that simple. You know, a lot of people say they want to do different stuff, 

[00:41:49] DJ And?: you know what I'm saying, 

[00:41:51] Big Javo: but it's that simple. It's that easy. If you want to do it, 

[00:41:53] Arieas "AJ" Lee: you're going to do it.

[00:41:54] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Oh yeah, 

[00:41:54] DJ And?: definitely. I'm not going to hold you all too much longer. Are we good? I appreciate you all for that. [00:42:00] Seriously, 

[00:42:00] Mike Izzard: I appreciate your patience with us. We look forward to y'all coming down. We'll get it up and running. 

[00:42:04] DJ And?: Please, please. I'm serious. Oh, yeah, you got it. Oh, yeah. You'll be the first one in there.

[00:42:09] DJ And?: Yeah. Get the books. 

[00:42:11] Mike Izzard: Oh, yeah. Yeah. So busy with time. Just like we'll figure out how to get it up and running. But, you know, we'll come in and get it. And here's the 

[00:42:18] DJ And?: thing. We tell people this too. My brother gets big at this. We'll come and we'll help. produce a podcast like you could just want to come in and record we'll get everything recorded, produce it and make sure everything's together because I understand like you said being able to help somebody from start to finish.

[00:42:32] DJ And?: If you could do that and you can put into somebody's spirit from there, sky's the limit. And last question. Okay. Last question, this is funny. So of course we're going to ask what current projects you all are working on cause we want you all to shameless plugs. Tell us what's going on, let us know where we can find you at and all that good stuff but okay.

[00:42:48] DJ And?: What can we expect from you all in the future? 

[00:42:51] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Okay. Projects that we're going to get started on actually is what me and Mike have been talking about for about a year is collaboration of artists [00:43:00] along with backwoods, like a compilation. So what we're going to do is take a handful of artists from these networking events that we have and compile them into one project and get the producers, producers Yeah.

[00:43:14] Arieas "AJ" Lee: And so put these producers with these artists in audio box and let them do what they do. And we do what we do and, and, and put it out there and we got back with behind us. So because 

[00:43:25] Mike Izzard: the talent has been coming through that after it's over, we kind of look at each other like we should have got this person.

[00:43:36] Mike Izzard: I would say probably 80 percent of them are great. It's hard to say. I mean, you might get 10 or 20 percent that's okay. But for the most part, everybody that comes through, it's great. I mean, I've got this new artist. I'm going to be working with starting this week, Ruby K she's a young lady that you know, we just came to an agreement and I'll be working.

[00:43:59] Mike Izzard: Once again, like I [00:44:00] said, I'm gonna bring in Rico. Yeah. Rico's 

[00:44:03] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Rico. Shout out to Rico, man. Shout him out. Shout him out. Talented. Oh my goodness. 

[00:44:09] DJ And?: I haven met. I'm a, I'm a, I'm a Fantasia Stan, so, man, Rico, part of me. Y'all. Oh, Rico. Rico. 

[00:44:15] Mike Izzard: Rico's just like r 

[00:44:16] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Kelly. He can make his voice sound like any. Body anything.

[00:44:20] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Yeah. Got his own sound. So I look 

[00:44:22] Mike Izzard: forward to working with him. Yeah, he's good. I mean, it's gonna be fruitful. We were at Fantasia house building her studio and he was sending some music. Me and AJ was looking at each other like, whoa, this new product she got is crazy because re record got his game together.

[00:44:36] Mike Izzard: And so I think that, you know, that's gonna be a success story. He's signed now and everything. Nice. We look forward to seeing some big things come from him and also working with him because the talent that we run across is just. Tremendous man, I mean, you know, but to have producers in that, like say Tobin actually come at a set up shop at Audio Box Studio.

[00:44:56] Mike Izzard: And they'll work 

[00:44:57] DJ And?: out of there for us. Yeah. So 

[00:44:59] Arieas "AJ" Lee: we, like [00:45:00] I said, when we, when we have these artists, we're not just hosting, we actually building relationships with these artists. So even with his manager and he's super cool and he wants to work with us. So it's just like a, a, a, a good relationship that we have that we can reach out.

[00:45:16] Arieas "AJ" Lee: If somebody want to. Beat from Zaytoven, we can definitely get you in the room. You know what I'm saying? It might cost you a little something, but But that's understood. It's like, it's not, no, I don't know. Let me see. No, you want, are you serious? If I know you're serious, I can, you know, make a call. It's nothing 

[00:45:32] Mike Izzard: but a conversation.

[00:45:32] Mike Izzard: That's one of the good things about being in our position, you know. We have Zaytoven. We have Drummer Boy. Yeah. You know. So, 

[00:45:40] Arieas "AJ" Lee: so 2024, is that what you 

[00:45:43] DJ And?: asked about? Yeah, man. I want to know, first of all, how y'all closing out the year? Y'all expect to go into 2024. We already 

[00:45:49] Arieas "AJ" Lee: started 2024. 

[00:45:51] DJ And?: I was about to say, so y'all taking away.

[00:45:53] DJ And?: I think so. Like this is, this is, this is the last quarter, last quarter getting ready for next 

[00:45:56] Arieas "AJ" Lee: year. Right, right, right. I mean, the sky's the limit for us, man. [00:46:00] We really want to get into this publishing side of things. Okay. Just really getting these artists and directing them in the right direction to where they can.

[00:46:10] Arieas "AJ" Lee: see some income business, you know, you don't have to be super rich, but you can make a decent living. And I think that's one thing that 

[00:46:20] Mike Izzard: we both want to kind of get involved in is helping people because we're so busy doing the things we do that we forget that, you know, people look at us and they're looking for some kind of direction or something.

[00:46:32] Mike Izzard: And I think that's what I realized when I came to Charlotte, there was a lot of people in high places. I would say that. I felt wasn't doing as much as they should be doing. Mm-Hmm. . And now I kind of feel we are in that position and we're kind of not doing what we should be doing too. So I think that Wow, man.

[00:46:51] Mike Izzard: And we want to do something different because it, the amount of accountability that you all have. Yeah. Why? It's not that they don't want to help us, just that they're probably like [00:47:00] AJ and I are so busy that Yeah. You don't really see the position you are in to help people. Mm-Hmm. . So I think that 24 would be a year that we kinda reach out and Oh yeah.

[00:47:08] Mike Izzard: Try to help people. But it can be, yeah. I mean, you can't kind of have to watch what you're doing because you have people calling you. I mean, I had my phone ringing all day. Oh yeah, yeah. Say hello to somebody. Next thing you know, you got 26 messages coming through. 

[00:47:22] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Yeah, no, they definitely got to have, have something there.

[00:47:25] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Some of them need a lot of artist development, you know, we can point them in that direction as well, you know, just trying to see what level you want first and then saying, okay, well, I think you should go this route, you know, you need a writer, you 

[00:47:38] DJ And?: need to produce all these artists need to hear that sometimes, yeah, they really have to write their 

[00:47:41] Arieas "AJ" Lee: songs because your favorite artists probably don't write their songs, but you don't exactly do, you know, don't feel a certain way, you know, and I always tell artists, like, if you look at the credits, you'd be like, Do I really hate people?

[00:47:53] Arieas "AJ" Lee: I like the artists or do I like say it? This, this list of credits right here because that list of credits is, you know what I'm saying? Doing a lot of [00:48:00] that. That's 

[00:48:01] Mike Izzard: what people don't realize in the days they think because they know how to run pro tools or fruity loop, they don't need nobody else. But if you look at the song credits on a successful team like Chris Brown, sometimes he had 10 different writers and stuff.

[00:48:14] Mike Izzard: Exactly. 

[00:48:14] DJ And?: Like the song that he has out right now. Knocking out the radio. Yeah. 

[00:48:18] Mike Izzard: Well, we try to tell people if you're not signed, you're not signed for the reason and let us maybe help show you what some of those reasons are. We're not going to say that we're, we know everything, but usually if you're not signed.

[00:48:29] Mike Izzard: There's something you're not doing right. And I can hear a lot of, they want to hear, you know, we'll tell them the truth. But personally, I had someone yesterday they sent me some music and sounded great, you know, but a few things I could point out to him, he appreciate that. But, you know. But but that's what it is.

[00:48:49] Mike Izzard: If you're not signed, you're not signed for a reason. You need to figure out what that is because there's no sense in keep on doing the same thing. And you're not getting no traction. I mean, ask somebody and believe them [00:49:00] and don't get mad when they say that, you know, you got to start over. 

[00:49:03] DJ And?: Saying everything that I tell people.

[00:49:05] DJ And?: They think I'm lying when I'm telling them. Yes. Yes. 

[00:49:09] Mike Izzard: Because the number one thing of it is no matter who and how important somebody is, if it's not a hit song, there's nothing we can do with it. Call nobody if it's not a hit song. AJ won't call his connects. I won't call my connect. Not if it's not a hit song because you only get one chance to impress somebody.

[00:49:25] Mike Izzard: And we would love to help you, you know, impress someone because it does us good too to be able to find somebody good, but the realization of it is they only want to hear good news and everything's not good. I mean, right. 

[00:49:37] Arieas "AJ" Lee: It's social media. Yeah, that's what it is. They only show all the good stuff on social media.

[00:49:41] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Sometimes, you know, you got to really. So the The downfalls and 

[00:49:45] DJ And?: hardships. Yeah. And tell people you only get to see the 2%. That's good. Yeah. See the other 98% they kind of obscure. Yeah. So that's 

[00:49:53] Arieas "AJ" Lee: just, just really educating and like I said, that publishing thing, I know for me and Mike, we've been talking about it for the last probably year and a half.

[00:49:59] Arieas "AJ" Lee: So [00:50:00] you definitely 

[00:50:00] DJ And?: going hammer that because you all would be a great 

[00:50:02] Arieas "AJ" Lee: resource for folks. Absolute. And we get to see a lot of first, you know, and we seem to see, to see, I say his name wrong. He started he recorded a couple of songs in the very beginning. Audio. Wow. He's one of the top artists right now, 

[00:50:18] Mike Izzard: but to see him on the videos and stuff, you kind of smile because just like, you know, 

[00:50:24] DJ And?: Yeah, put them in the 

[00:50:27] Mike Izzard: We don't never try to take nobody's credit No, no, no When their paths cross us and we see them go to success We kind of feel good to know that We saw 

[00:50:34] Arieas "AJ" Lee: them in the beginning Yeah, 

[00:50:35] DJ And?: exactly So they was regular artists Make sure that they were in an environment where they 

[00:50:39] Mike Izzard: could Yeah, yeah And no matter who they are, nine times out of ten, AJ's done something to their songs I mean, I think he recorded his whole first album His first album mix, 

[00:50:47] Arieas "AJ" Lee: mix He mixed the whole album, yeah Yeah, the Red Lights and 

[00:50:50] Mike Izzard: Yeah.

[00:50:50] Mike Izzard: I'm saying with the baby, I mean, he did all the baby stuff until, you know, we're getting a lot more responsible with the 

[00:50:56] Arieas "AJ" Lee: kids and stuff. Yeah. We did that. That [00:51:00] went 

[00:51:00] Mike Izzard: double, triple platinum. Good Lord. AJ did that too. Good Lord. Okay. Like I said, I don't never take the credit for it. Just the guy who's actually in the recording room with them along with our other engineers and shout out to all of them too because, you know, they make us number one and 

[00:51:15] Arieas "AJ" Lee: we appreciate it.

[00:51:15] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Great engineers. That's a bonus to the 

[00:51:18] Mike Izzard: studio. And a lot of people don't know that most of our engineers probably came up on the AJ and been recording for at least 10 years. I'm serious. 

[00:51:26] DJ And?: So you let them come up on you learning? 

[00:51:31] Arieas "AJ" Lee: They watched me as kids. A lot of them watched me as kids and, and. to reach back.

[00:51:35] Arieas "AJ" Lee: A lot of them are from South Carolina. 

[00:51:38] DJ And?: I was about to ask. Mike was 

[00:51:39] Arieas "AJ" Lee: like, yeah, I was the main engineer chilling myself. I'm like, Mike, I've been doing this 20 years, Mike. He said, I said, I got it. I got it. I got some engineers, man. I'm telling you, they're going to need some, they're going to need some work though.

[00:51:52] DJ And?: Yeah.

[00:51:56] Mike Izzard: Yeah. 

[00:51:56] Arieas "AJ" Lee: We definitely have some talent and for them to be able to [00:52:00] watch it. done the you know, the right way, 

[00:52:02] DJ And?: you know, done in a professional way. 

[00:52:05] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Yeah. Yeah. That way to say, okay, this is an example that I can see somebody did. And that's what we 

[00:52:11] Mike Izzard: asked for. But our engineers, most of them, they got 10 years because they've been on the AJ ever since they was 13 or 14.

[00:52:19] Mike Izzard: But to see, you know, Jetson and people like that, that started at AJ studio and a lot of the other ones. Yeah. The tag. Oh, that's made another. Yeah, exactly. 

[00:52:28] Arieas "AJ" Lee: So, I got a quick story real quick, I know you gotta wrap up. Go ahead. So, I'm recording Jetson as an artist. He was an artist before he was a producer.

[00:52:35] Arieas "AJ" Lee: And so, he was producing a song for some guy, I don't know, I think it was one of his songs featuring somebody. So, we wrap up the session, he called me the next day, and I guess he had some girl hear the song, and she said, I like that, oh lord, Jetson made it. And so he said, you can bounce that down, man.

[00:52:49] Arieas "AJ" Lee: That's a tag. I said, I don't know what you're talking about. What tag are you know, when I say, Oh Lord, I say, I guess when I bounced it down and sent it to him the next day, I hear, Oh Lord, Jetson made another. There on [00:53:00] out, he in the little room at the bottom in Columbia. I'm walking past the room. I'm just saying, Oh Lord.

[00:53:05] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Cause I know one day and he, and he did it. And like, he's one of the biggest producers right now. And that tag is like, 

[00:53:13] Mike Izzard: Platinum producer, same way with 2020, started with with me before AJ got on board. And he's he's sleeping on the sofa and I used to live in it and to see him, you know, with a couple of platinum plaques and he brought them back with an attitude bigger than the whole studio.

[00:53:30] Mike Izzard: But, you know, we, we love to see, you know, how people do good and we don't take the credit. For, we just, you know, 

[00:53:37] DJ And?: you create, it's like y'all are almost like an incubator. 

[00:53:39] Mike Izzard: Talent ain't like the old, just act like, you know, you know? Yeah. Real 

[00:53:43] DJ And?: talk throw slack way. So, yeah. Come on. Don't forget where you came from.

[00:53:48] DJ And?: Yeah. But, but it's 

[00:53:49] Mike Izzard: great what you got guys are doing, man. And we look forward to when we get our studio up and running a podcast. So podcast, we'll be there. Let you guys be the first one to. I told you to get on the mics. I'll be there [00:54:00] 

[00:54:00] DJ And?: for sure. And I have to say this before we finish out. Could you tell people how they could reach out to you all if they're interested in using the services at Audiobox?

[00:54:08] DJ And?: For 

[00:54:08] Arieas "AJ" Lee: sure. For sure. Me personally, you can reach out to me on Instagram at AJ quantum beats. And also Audiobox studios is where you can find me and Mike and we'll respond contact information and everything on that as well. So. Just DM the numbers on there. That's pick up or text me. I know y'all 

[00:54:28] DJ And?: ain't playing either.

[00:54:29] DJ And?: Yes. 

[00:54:29] Mike Izzard: And, and main just audio box studios on Instagram and my number's not on there. AJ. Hey, I 

[00:54:36] Arieas "AJ" Lee: was about to Mike, I'll forward it to them. There you go. Yeah, definitely. But studio design, hands down interior, man, he does some crazy stuff. That guy could bother you, man. I'm 

[00:54:45] DJ And?: going to bother 

[00:54:46] Arieas "AJ" Lee: you some more.

[00:54:46] Arieas "AJ" Lee: Celebrities, they, they call him to do all kinds of crazy stuff. I can imagine. And he's seen me fish something like. Tell you that stuff 

[00:54:52] Big Javo: is in your head. You know, you can hear people talk I was able to kind of came full circle today. [00:55:00] Cause I didn't always, you know, I got my number, I got 

[00:55:02] Arieas "AJ" Lee: AJ. I didn't even know I called him like, 

[00:55:04] DJ And?: all right.

[00:55:06] DJ And?: So, you 

[00:55:07] Big Javo: know what I'm saying? I'm just glad I can be here, man. Giving them flowers, man. Just to see the progress they've made, man. So fast. How they've adapted. And just treat it there. Yeah. Customers. Well, anybody. Well, the service that they provide 

[00:55:19] Mike Izzard: is top of the chain. Yeah. And it's great to be a black owned business and to be open for 16 or 17 years with no incidents whatsoever.

[00:55:28] Mike Izzard: Yes. And because he and I both know that the main thing is the studio. That's the only thing that matters. It's not the money. It's not who's in there. It's just. We have to be consistent. We have to stay running because that's going to be our legacy. It means so much and we don't and that's why we quit letting a lot of people rent the studio and stuff, because we could rent it to survive for a couple of hundred dollars and end up costing us our whole business.

[00:55:52] Mike Izzard: And it's not worth, it's not worth the money. So we protect your investment. We have to protect investment. And then just. Really [00:56:00] be careful who we let do it because if you let the wrong people in there We got 20 or 30 people on the outside and we right down front street. So, oh, you know, you have to be mine Yeah, yeah, we do and we have always keep our guys aware that you know any day we can get shut down for anything Mm hmm.

[00:56:17] Mike Izzard: So that's the main thing. You can't just want everybody it has to be for people who are really serious and yeah Mm hmm AJ. He runs the studio. I have very little to do with it as far as Today's running so I know that inside and out and I'm out building up, but we're a great partnership. And I say that, you know, you can't do everything by yourself and we got a whole team of people.

[00:56:41] Mike Izzard: I mean, sometime I look on our chat and we've got what, 13 people that work for us. And that's a beautiful thing to be able to do that and to be able to be here talking to you guys. Great. Oh 

[00:56:52] Arieas "AJ" Lee: yeah. Definitely a pleasure, 

[00:56:53] DJ And?: man. I'm going to tell you just as a black man. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:56:56] DJ And?: Especially being from the South. Yeah, I'm from the South too. That's what I'm saying. [00:57:00] Look, you know how cool it is. I always tell folks like, especially hip hop and business folk in the South, we're different. Yeah. We like to own something from the ground up and do that hard work from the ground up. It's always good to see.

[00:57:14] DJ And?: To statesmen, statesmen, not elder statesmen, statesmen doing it correctly because now I can look at you all and be like, okay, yeah, I'm at my behavior. Let me make sure that this is looking this way. I know that when I will move forward business, I want it to look like this. My interactions with folks should look like this.

[00:57:31] DJ And?: And it helps me make sure that I'm keying off on the proper things. And that's something that this is what we like to bring to the podcast. This is what we like people to know. Not to 

[00:57:37] Mike Izzard: cut you off, but that was one of the things that I always want. I want something of quality. I didn't want nothing because most people when they build something, let's just do it this way.

[00:57:46] Mike Izzard: Then later when we get money, we'll do it that way. I've never seen that work. I said, let me build it. Like I got some money, even though I didn't have no money. I need to build it like it's something. Yeah. And I didn't want to. Come up with a business. I had to beg people to come in. [00:58:00] So the building itself was part of the marketing scheme.

[00:58:04] Mike Izzard: And because I was a photographer, I was able to show people lifestyle instead of just, you know, a ceiling with nothing in it. Every ceiling to me is like a place to really express. It's a canvas. Yeah, it's a canvas that everybody always leave empty and every one of our ceilings got something different in it.

[00:58:22] Mike Izzard: Yep. Yeah, 

[00:58:23] DJ And?: man. I know. We gotta wrap up. Yeah, we gotta wrap up. I'm gonna tell you like this. Mm-Hmm. . I'm coming to the studio. Yeah. Yeah. And when you get that podcast room open, we their first ones in there. Yeah. All right. So wanna make sure that's understood outta word, right. Well, I wanna say from the Hilltop Glove podcast, we thank you all for joining us today.

[00:58:40] DJ And?: I want to shout out AudioBox Studios. World famous AudioBox. Yes, world famous AudioBox Studios. AJ, Mike, Javo, Skip, Tamiya, DJ and what? We're coming to you from Carolina, California. Man, we appreciate y'all today on the podcast. Man, if you didn't get any jewels from this, you're missing something. Please clean your ears out.

[00:58:59] DJ And?: As [00:59:00] I like to always tell people, make sure you tell somebody beside you that you love them. That you appreciate them and we will see you on the next episode. Peace. Appreciate 

[00:59:09] Arieas "AJ" Lee: it. Oh, yeah.