SPEAKER_00 1:45

Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Hilltop Club Podcast. Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Chris Mohead, also known as Rob Savage. You want me to call you Rob? People call you Rob on the street.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Some people call me Rob, some people call me Chris. Just depends on where you know me from.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Okay. It really doesn't matter. All right. So Chris is an artist, father, and entrepreneur that believes music is a language. And as an artist, it allows him to tell his unique story as well as come in contact with many filmmakers, models, actors, and creatives in the process. As a military child, he claims South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, at that, as his home since 2004. And he started rapping in high school, which led to doing skill, which led to doing skits and perfecting his craft. Since then, he has performed in over a hundred shows. His first album, The Sunflower Act One, details his life from birth to fatherhood and the journey of entrepreneurship. In 2019, he went to business with his father, Duke Mohead, and started Hilo Art Entertainment. Hilo Art Entertainment is a community-based platform that showcases South Carolina's local artists, poets, and hosts each and every Thursday night at my house, located at 7205 Two Notch Road. During COVID, they decided to focus on interviews and open mic style performances called 600 Seconds with Hilo Art, which can be found on YouTube and all streaming platforms, most streaming platforms. Yes. Thank you for joining us today. How are you?

SPEAKER_02 3:15

Thank you, man. I'm doing good. It's a beautiful Saturday morning. It just feels good outside, man. Oh, that's today. I thought it was yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

It was yesterday. Oh, almost everybody's celebrating this.

SPEAKER_03 3:25

Right, right. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 3:26

Yeah, we blacked out today. Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

I thought I was about to give you a chance. I was like, let me wear my green just in case anybody tried me. Right, yeah. Okay, so thank you for being here, especially. And also thank you for collaborating with us. You've done a couple projects with us earlier this year, and we just appreciate your creativity and also like willing to help out. And we just appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

Definitely, man. Thank you all for having me. I'm happy to be here. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

We are definitely excited with everything you've been doing. I you guys, I also actually have an episode on Hilo Art. Um, I did it with the 600 Seconds with Kendra. It was literally at the beginning when you guys first started. Uh-huh. You were so you guys gotta check that out. But we want to start off each interview telling you telling us a little bit more about yourself, your childhood, what was it like growing up in as a military family. Yeah. And who or what influenced you to be who you are today?

SPEAKER_02 4:15

So growing up as a as a military kid is kind of it's nice. You know, it's it's cool and everything like that. The only I guess stressful, if you can call it, part about it is when your father has to go to yeah, he went to war like three different times where he, you know, he he left us for like a year. You know what I'm saying? So and then my mom is basically a single parent at that point, and I got two brothers. So we, you know, we wildin', running up the walls and stuff like that. So, you know, kudos to her for pulling together. But I always like thought my dad was like the coolest person in the world, you know, he's a soldier. And it was it was always great. And the other part is uprooting your life and moving to a whole other place. You kind of have to get used to that early on. And something that influenced me was again with my dad riding around with him. He used to play all the like the latest hip-hop music, not even the clean versions, like we just listening to whatever's new at the time. And I don't think he knew I was in the back seat, like soaking it all up. Tupac, Outcast, Scarface, just everything. And yeah, and then one day out of the blue, I was like, hey dad, you know, I wrote this, or or mom, you know, I wrote this. And let me know what y'all think. And then I just remember my first like raps when I was like five, six years old, rapping it to them and and seeing their face. And I kind of you know fell in love with that feeling of surprising people with with my creativity and stuff like that. So yeah, I can't remember the last thing you said. You asked me something else.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

So did you always know you were gonna be creative?

SPEAKER_02 5:38

No, for a while I thought I was gonna do football. I wanted to play football, I wanted to be in the NFL. Um, but that was only really only because I didn't know how to be uh creative. I knew I I knew I wanted to rap, but I never knew how to go to the studio, I never knew anything. I was like, I don't understand how you go from this from the notebook to the you know to the CD. So I just kind of gave up for a little while until I met this guy in my high school who was going to quantum beats off of Decker and recording his music. And I I sat in on a session with him, and then from there it was up, man. So yeah. I was like maybe 17 at that point. Yeah, but up until then I thought I was gonna be a football player. I don't want to I want to be. Michael Vick was my idol, man. I looked up to Michael Vick. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

So you said you have other siblings. Um, are you the middle child?

SPEAKER_02 6:24

Yep, right in the middle.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

See, I knew it. I just felt the vibe. Yeah. Middle, middle child vibes.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

We always we overlooked, man.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

We're the best out here.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Absolutely. Yeah, my old my older brother was always a hard worker, like the, you know, I don't want to say the golden child, because he had he got in trouble too, but he was always the one like working hard. He was the leader. And then my younger brother, I felt like he could, you know, they felt like he could do no wrong. So I'm in the middle. Ain't nobody worried about me at all. So I'm I'm in my room. Just coasting. Just chilling, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

You can do whatever you want as a middle child. You learn from their mistakes, and the one after you, you learn that they don't really make mistakes. They don't even take the risk enough because they already know what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

So what different cities did you live in as a child? Did you guys move a lot?

SPEAKER_02 7:10

Yeah, a little bit. And and when I in the beginning, because I was born in Tacoma, Washington.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

And and maybe at like six months old, I moved to we moved to Fort Benning, Georgia. And I was where my little brother was born, and from there we moved to Watertown, New York. And then from Watertown, New York, we moved to Simbach, Germany.

unknown 7:30

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

And well, it's called the city was called like Kaiserschlaudern or something like that. What? They used to just call it K-Town. But Kazerschlaudern. Yeah, K-Town. And then from from there we moved here. So that was like five different places before I was 11. And then we moved here when I was 11. And I've been here ever since. Wow. Yeah, yeah. So Fort Jackson became home then for a while. Yeah, yeah. Fort Jackson was actually we only stayed at Fort Jackson for like maybe six months. And then we found a house. And, you know, and then it was, I tell I like to tell everybody, it's such a culture shock, you know, like because I was in in Germany, it's all, it's pretty much all white. There was only one other black kid. And then I come here and it's all black. You know what I'm saying? So I'm wearing my I'm wearing my short shorts and my shirt tucked in with the collar and stuff like that. And how we dress. Yeah. I think I'm funny because I was a class clown in Germany, and everybody's like, this guy's corny. So I switched up my whole style like towards the end of the year. I was like, okay, now I'm gonna be a gangbanger. I'm gonna I want to be like Snoop Dogg, and you know, it was just just being stupid. Right, right, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:31

Hormones get going and exactly. Gangs is cool, and and nobody wants to mess with you. So yeah, you try to see how hard you can go.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

Yeah, vanilla. Got punched in the face a lot. But it's cool though. We didn't know that was a long time ago.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

What school did you go to?

SPEAKER_02 8:49

Here, a middle school summit in Ridgevie for high school and long leaf in middle school too.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Long leaf, okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

So you you mentioned kids now, right? I have one kid, yeah. How old is your kid? He's three. He'll be four in July.

SPEAKER_04 9:01

Okay, so my kid just turned four.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04 9:03

So I feel you.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a boy, girl? Yes, boy. Yeah, but I got a little boy, man. He boy, they don't believe in gravity. They don't think nothing can hurt them. Oh my goodness. Jesus. They put too much trust in me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:17

I started like you know, it's something I was trying, like, I'm trying to work with it myself, and then I'm trying to also work with it with my wife, because she's always terrified of stuff. But like I want him to fall now. Yeah. So he learns how to like, you know, what his limits are. Because I did crazy shit.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

Like that and you and you're going to. Like that's yeah, that's how you learn. Like you said. And my my kid, he's autistic, you know, but he's he's smart. He's super smart. And sometimes I feel like he's because of that. My mom, I love my mom. She I feel like she shelters him a little bit sometimes. My wife does. And I but I don't want to be like, oh, you gotta be hard on him, you gotta be. But it's kind of like a balance where I don't want him to I don't want to treat him like he's so different that he can't, you know, do certain things or he can't act a certain way. But um at the same time, I I try to be loving and soft with him too, you know, because that's important.

SPEAKER_04 10:05

Yeah. So my uh my sister has autism. She's 33. So like, and and my day job I never talk about my day job on the air. This might this might become politically problematic. But anyway, my day job, I'm I'm with the the media and communications department at Family Connection of South Carolina. And so we're like the PTI in the state. Okay. So when you enter into the school system, you get an IEP, which basically is an individualized education plan. So it's it's what the school what services the school is going to provide for you. Yeah. We're the people that advocate for you and and give you the resources you need to tell the school, no, I need X, Y, and Z. Right, right. So come holler at us in that time. But but yeah, I think honestly, yeah, getting therapy and services like that, because I'm the same way, like when my sister was coming up, like you know, like I wanted, you know, like, but but but you have to you have to learn how to interact in this world. Exactly. You know, you know. Yeah. And I think there has been a lot more development in like the way that you teach that now. And that's the therapies.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

Yeah, and I I definitely think we have spoken with you guys because my wife usually does all the, you know, the planning and stuff, but I'm there sometimes. But as he's in school now. He's in pre-K for three year olds, and he'll be nice. Yeah, he'll be going eight hours next year. But yeah, they they they do they do a good job with you know we just had a parent teacher meeting the other day, and they were just saying how he's he's doing really good. He doesn't he doesn't get in any trouble, but he doesn't speak with he doesn't play with other kids. He likes to play by himself, doesn't have any siblings or anything like that. So that's one thing I I hope to see more next year is him.

SPEAKER_04 11:41

Yeah, because I think that's the thing too, just from that generation that grew up over COVID. It's like like there's a lack of that. You know, because I remember like when my kid was young and it would be like, well, we can go to the park as long as nobody else is there. And then the first time we go to the park and there's other kids, and I'm like, yeah, go play with them. He's like, Are you sure?

SPEAKER_00 11:58

And I'm like, that's fine, okay. What's safe and what's not safe? Right.

SPEAKER_04 12:02

And so, like, you know, like there's a whole generational like gap there for the play, you know, if you don't have siblings. And he has cousins and stuff, but you know, like, yeah. We weren't all bubbled up. He got a lot of cousins.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

No, my son got like five, six cousins, all female. Oh yeah, he hates it.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Like, I can't tackle them. I can't, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

Yeah, he just hates the scream. Like they're so loud and screaming. He's oh man. They get to screaming, he gets to stomping.

SPEAKER_04 12:27

Oh. Well, so you know, like that's that's one of the things that, you know, we talk about on our show is that that transition to fatherhood and like deciding consciously the role that we're gonna take. You know, because like I feel like there's a lot of like it's like a lot of cultural role of masculinity, is like we gotta prepare you for how rough it is out there. And if I'm not hard, you know, but but there's also like this culture shift going on where it's like I don't I don't want to be an ass to my kid. I really don't. Exactly, you know, but I'm also dealing with some like instinctive learned behaviors that I've got from the previous generation, you know, even though like, you know, I love my father and he's he's great. This is a birthday today, actually. Oh yeah, yeah, but you know, that generation is a little bit harsher than what is standard now, you know. And so like we got to find our balance. And so like you are now working with your father and you know, like how is that?

SPEAKER_02 13:22

How is that? Working with my dad is it's cool. It's cool now. It was it was some growing pains in the beginning because the main, you know, mainly because he's my you know, he's my dad. I'm his son. So I don't know. It was like there's we're father and son, and then he moved to uh they moved to Texas and then they moved to Korea. So I didn't see him for like, this is as an adult. I didn't see them for like three years, and then they came back and I was like, I've been doing music this whole time. Right, right, right. Now I want to. I'm an adult. Here I am, here's my career. Yeah, this is this is what I want to do. I could use your help. And so in the beginning, it was a lot of I don't think you should talk like I don't think you should say this, I don't think you should say that. And I'm like, Dad, I've been doing this for like, you know, this right from this is my life now. You can't tell me how to, you know, if it's a business related thing, I think that's what we learned. Like, if it's something business related, then I tend to trust him, his opinions a little more. If it's a creative idea, then I gotta put my foot down. Like you. Yeah, this is what I do. Like, leave me alone. Thanks. But yeah, my dad, like the hardest working man that I that I ever met, and he, you know, he goes hard, man. And I'm surprised he's not here. He must be, he must have probably sleep from working all night. But but yeah, he that was like a big turning point in my life was him just taking interest in my career, you know, in my mid-20s. Even though like I've been doing it since I was a kid, and he was always kind of like, they let me, you know, do it, do express myself, but somewhere around my mid-20s, he was really interested in and what I was doing and and wanting to help out. So transition to seeing you as an adult.

SPEAKER_04 14:48

Yeah. Oh, oh, you actually have something to say now instead of that's that's cute. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

And that's you just that you just had to live life a little bit. Right.

SPEAKER_04 14:55

To have something interesting to talk about, other than the girl that broke your heart and well, and you have to have some like experience that is not shared with your parents because you know, even if you're nice as a teenager, you're rapping about stuff that they saw.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. They know, yeah, they know your story, or they they feel like they they feel like they know everything about you, but you, you know, you like you say you live a whole life away from them and they gotta come and you know, listen to pay attention to what I'm saying, and then you know, you'll learn me a little bit better. But but we we're we're good now. We're in a good place, I think. Now, but in the beginning it was it was kind of rough, man.

SPEAKER_04 15:31

He was Yeah, it's always growing pains and stuff, yeah. Yeah, and I think, you know, like I would I would guess any kind of like management relationship. I know me and project managers or me and you know, whoever is my boss at the time on whatever project, like there's always growing pains because there's shit I want to do a certain way. And if you're not doing it that way, it's a it's yeah. You're in my way here. Yeah, and then but then when it's family, you know, like you got and and then you you but you you also have that tie that you want to hold it there.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

And I still gotta come see you on Thanksgiving. So Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

So how do y'all keep that relationship separate, like family and work?

SPEAKER_02 16:09

We don't, and we should, but we don't, man. We it's at the at the dinner table at Thanksgiving, we're talking about what the next show is and stuff like that. Um we kind of laugh it off though. Like we'll say stuff. Uh my dad'll he'll say something, and I'll be like, man, leave me alone if I fire you, type stuff like that. We joke about it. It's we don't take it too, too serious. But and I think I got to a point where I can kind of speak to my dad in a way of like, you know, that's not cool, or you know, this isn't it. I speak I speak my mind a little more, and I think that's good because for the longest it was like, that's my dad, I respect him. I'm never gonna say I can't say nothing. Right, but you can respect and disagree at the same time. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. That was something that I definitely had to learn in order to have a healthy business relationship.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

So now, what about your other siblings?

SPEAKER_02 16:50

How do they like my my both my brothers are managers at Publix, so that's kind of their career. But they always, you know, they're gonna be corporate, they're super smart college graduates, you know what I'm saying? And but my older brother's also on TikTok. He has like three, four hundred thousand followers on TikTok. He just yeah, he like he like does drink challenges and stuff like that. So Mohizi Foshizi, I want to shout him out. Mohizi Foshizi, but he yeah, but they they they kind of do their own thing. You know, they got they we all got families and stuff like that. So they come to the shows and and support when they can, but they're not really a part of the you know the business. And I, you know, I would never want to force them to do something that they weren't into.

SPEAKER_04 17:31

Well, yeah, and every you know, everybody doing their own thing is it's good. It's good for people's, you know, individuality, you know. And it and it also lets the youth know that there's other things you can do because you don't want to get locked into a family business where the next generation is like, well, I gotta do this.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

That's why I asked, because I was like, I wonder if they're all like a part of the entertainment.

SPEAKER_04 17:49

I mean, that's that's nice if that happens. You know if you set up for life because the family got a business, I ain't gonna say no, bro.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

We're not the wings. I'm not the type of person to even feel like, excuse me, I'm like I'm doing this and you have to come support me. Why aren't you supporting me? You know, I'm that's not me. If I do something that that you connect with, then please, you know, come support it. But otherwise, live your life, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:12

So now that now that you are a father, what are some of the lessons that you've learned from your dad that you want to like pass? Like this is something I've been thinking along a lot about, you know, like because my dad never says anything, like there's not sayings. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

You know, it's all it's all action. You know? Yeah. The biggest thing that I want to try to pass down is there are there are consequences to every action. You know, take it with with your head high. You know what I'm saying? Don't ever run from I never ran from a whooping or a punishment. If I did wrong, I, you know, I understood. He let me, he always spoke to me and been like, This is you're this is gonna happen because you did this. And that led me to just take responsibility for my actions, and I would love to pass that down to my child. If you if you do this, this is gonna happen. If you keep on throwing things, I'm gonna cut your TV show off. Yeah. And on the uh on the other end of things, just to spend more time, because my dad, like I said, he's a hard worker. So there's some sometimes I wish that we were a little bit closer growing up and you know, spent a little more time together. He and he was also my football coach too at one point. So we did we did have those bonding bonding moments. Right. It was also those times where he was gone for like a year, he was gone for a long time. So I I you know, just to spend more time with my son, just playing with him, you know, is is something that take from my childhood too.

SPEAKER_04 19:29

Yeah, yeah. I uh do a lot of work from home. And there's always, you know, like it's always play with me, dad, play with me, dad. And I'll you know, like I want to every second, you know, except for when I don't. Yeah. And then when I gotta get something done, you know. Right. But but yeah, that that balance and that I think, you know, there was there was like this idea at one point in time that as a father, your role was to bring home the bacon.

unknown 19:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:56

Exactly. And you had to go out there and just work and work and work, and it was okay that you weren't around your kids and your family because you were bringing home. But it's not like that anymore. Everybody's working. And, you know, so do we pay somebody else to take care of our kids or do we take more of an active role? And I think that I personally I from where I sit, us taking more of an active role wherever we can as a family, you know, not just not just us, but the older generation. And if you got siblings old enough to do that too, but like, you know.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

It takes a village.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

You have a village, like yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

My mom watches my my kid when me and my wife are both working, so that's really it. I mean, communication is the key. Yeah. Like I'm very vocal, I try to be as vocal as I can about the way I want him to be raised. That way, how's that go? Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

You know what I'm just saying? Like, you're a little bit younger than us, so like I want to know like how do you want your child to be raised? Like, what are some things you again?

SPEAKER_02 20:48

I just want him to have some type of integrity. I want him to be able to, again, take responsibility for his for his actions. And um, I don't know, I just want to be good. And he is a good boy, man. He doesn't get in no trouble or anything like that. But when he does, I'm I'm on him. Right. But yeah, I just I don't know. We have a I have a good relationship with my mom and my wife, and whenever I'm not around, I I I always feel like he's in good hands. Okay. But it doesn't really extend past that. I'm not really uh it took me a minute to even want him to go to school because I'm kind of not comfortable with anybody around my child like that. But yeah, I gotta, you know, I gotta break past that at some point. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah, that's fatherhood.

SPEAKER_04 21:27

Oh man. Yeah, we're we're eventually we're gonna do this Father's Day fatherhood episode. Like we keep on talking about it, but I think I think we're also like still figuring shit out, too. See, I don't have any wise uncle like words of wisdom about this shit. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

So to transition into your music, you know, being a music artist, you're kind of like placed in a creative settings with like-minded individuals. So, what message do you want your listeners to grasp from your music?

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Um, I really just want people to listen to my music and say, that's dope, that's amazing. I want I think I can do it better though.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

That's what I want to do.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

It's like a challenge. Yeah, challenge in your life.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

I want to inspire, man. Like just like the people who I grew up listening to. Like I grew up on Outcast and and Yeah, and like even like Childish Gambino and different artists like that, like just who do everything. And I'm like, man, I think I can do it too. You know, so that's that's really the message. That and just and just be true to yourself. I feel like my music was terrible before I started being honest, like when I was pretending when I was pretending to be something else.

SPEAKER_04 22:30

That's that's part of the growth, though. I think I think at a certain stage, people want to mimic what they hear. Yeah, and then you use that to get good at the art form, and then once you got the tools, you live life and you got shit to say.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

Right now you know how to do it. Yeah, but now the the the dark side of that is I'm terrified to put music out now because I'm I'm telling you real life stories Oh, it's it's gutting yourself on a track. Yeah, and half the time people don't even take it as serious as I, you know, as I um as it was to me at the time. Right. When even putting it out is kind of just nerve-wracking sometimes, especially when I'm if I'm talking about somebody specifically, talking about my dad or my or my wife or something in my music.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

And because you're being like completely vulnerable.

SPEAKER_02 23:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

A lot of people don't understand that. I think I think that's why it takes artists a little bit longer to put music out, is because you have to go through stuff and then you gotta like release it onto the music. Right, right. What's that process like for you? Because you're going into your second album, Raindrops.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

This is my first album where I recorded this at home completely, pretty much alone. Like I just anytime, any day I was off, I wake up early in the morning, everybody sleep, because I like I love mornings. And uh, it's peaceful. And and I would record and and everything like that, but I was just kind of locked in a Cage. I didn't even let a lot of people hear what I was making, other than my wife and a few friends. But so now I'm kind of nervous, but I at the same time I feel like this is the best music I've ever made. And I can't wait for everybody to hear it, man. Because I'm getting I'm getting personal and vulnerable, but it's not like in a sad, you know, depressing way. It's right. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of like this is what it's like in my house on a daily day basis.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

So I hope people get that. I hope people listen to it and and understand. Because I just explained kind of the theme of the album. Yeah. Okay, so it's basically one long day in my life. Like my last album was my life from start to where I am now. And this album is just one long day. I wake up in the first the beginning of the album, I wake up and go to work and deal with like the stress of work and money and and all that. The second half, I'm coming home to my wife and being showered with with love and everything, and maybe a few little arguments or whatever, and just playing with my son and things like that. And that's um just the balance of of work and then having a place of peace to come home to. I see. You know, so that's kind of what I was what I'm pushing with this album.

SPEAKER_04 24:53

So you're you you're dealing with with time frames and with like energetic transitions within your day-to-day life and within your your life as a whole in the previous album.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Because to me, it's all about recharging, man. This world is it's a lot. It's a lot of stuff that we go through on a day-to-day. Even just being on social media all day is stressful. You need to come home and unwind and recharge every single day. And it's important to have a in my case, a strong black woman there to just handle stuff for you. Like when you get home, just to be able to just I'm done.

SPEAKER_03 25:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

You know what I'm saying? And she got you. So that's that was important to me. So I wanted to put that out there.

SPEAKER_04 25:34

Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. That's uh I'm very interested to hear that. That's uh yeah, it's called Raindrops. Yeah. It'll be available.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

I like the way you uh when I listened to the Sunflower album, you were really like detailed and like how you are feeling, like metaphorically, like giving us like visuals through Word. So that's how I know like you really like really put your all into your music.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

Yeah, and I'm a big album guy. Like I love I love a good album, not just a collection of songs. I love like I said, Outcasts or Frank Ocean, even Kanye, Kendrick, these people who put they want to give you an album, an experience of like a movie in their own way. Man on the Moon, I think. Man on the Moon, Kit King.

SPEAKER_03 26:14

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

Yeah, exactly. Um, Man on the Moon 2 is probably my favorite, just because the atmosphere is dark. It's like it's like the second Star Wars kind of like the secret, you know, everything is darker. Yeah, so yeah, this is my second album, but it's not really darker. It's actually because I it's hard for me to even listen to Sunflower because there's certain things that I said on there and I understand and I know the deeper thing behind it, you know. So it's tough for me to even listen to some of those songs. And so I was like, on this one, I don't want to make anything depressing. Even if I am feeling depressed, I want to make something that's gonna bring me out of it. Right.

SPEAKER_04 26:46

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Yeah, so sunflower.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Well, and it's part of that fuel.

SPEAKER_04 26:50

You know, like and and and that's one thing about fatherhood is like there is an abundance of motivation from duty and necessity, but then there is also like perpetual exhaustion all the time.

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Yeah. And sometimes it's like nobody cares. Like dad's like, no one, no one cares how you, you know, you're sad and you're and you're tired.

SPEAKER_04 27:10

You know, you know, because I mean in in in my situation, like I guess, you know, like I'm always I'm always worried about making sure my my my wife is good. Yeah. And making sure that she gets a chance to recharge. And then sometimes I'm just nah, same here.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Even it doesn't matter, like I get off work and come home and cook dinner sometimes. Like I'm really yeah, I gotta take care of everybody, you know, but as long as I I as long as I can have my recharge time, I'm I'm good. And she's good about letting me have my time to just recharge. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

And being being conscious of those spaces and those energetic times, and like particularly when you do work from home, like like you know, making a transition between this is this is now no longer the work time and this is the home time. And I'm that's something that I had to be like very strong about. So I used to get a lot done just sitting on the couch watching some random shit. Yeah, and working on the computer. But it's it's like, no, like I can't I can do that later in the evening, but if I was awake, I can't do that. Like I'm not doing that.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

There's time. I I want to say I I think that I would love to work from home, but it's probably I'm sure it's probably some to it too. Because right now I got regular nine to five I go to, and I get like a split second of being home and then it's back out to go perform or and do interviews and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04 28:23

So if I had a home office, if I had a home office, it would be beautiful. Yeah. But I my house, my house is like like 900 square feet. It's like basically a two-bedroom apartment.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

So you said you created a studio at your house, you recorded everything at your house. Yes. Um so what is it like producing your own music? So you you handle everything, you edit it, produce it.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Yeah, everything except I don't I don't make the beats anymore. I used to make the beats when I was when I was younger, my music, but uh sample clearances are expensive. And I was like, I want this to make money someday, so I'm not gonna sample anything. So I'm gonna get people who to make beats who don't use any samples. They create everything from scratch. But yeah, I record myself, I do the album covers. I got a photographer, his name's New Blaze. He he takes the pictures, I edit them, you know, crop them, do the the color correction and stuff. I film a couple videos and do all that too. Yeah, and I record everything and edit it up and chop it up.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Production team.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

It's all in you. Okay. Yeah, yeah, pretty much.

SPEAKER_02 29:21

Except the photography. I can't take pictures of myself, but if I could, I would.

SPEAKER_04 29:27

There's nothing wrong with you know, working with other people in the community where you can. I think, I think, you know, like that's something that we we all just kind of like come up with this idea that we got to do it all ourselves because we can't pay anybody else. Yeah. But, you know, there is there is like a an added value sometimes and a synergy that we can reach. And like beats is a good one. Yeah. Because that's it's very time consuming, and the time and the sample clearances is a pain in the ass. And all of the logistics of that is a pain in the ass. Right. And if somebody else is really dope at it, at a collaboration on that level, you know, helps you in network within the community too.

SPEAKER_02 29:59

Yeah, absolutely. Because I can't play any instruments or whatever. But I will mention for this album, I did have uh keyboard player, Rob Leonard, came by and he played the keys. And on The Sunflower, I had the dubber playing. Yeah, dubber, yeah. Yeah, he played a guitar on. If pretty much if you hear the guitar on there, that's the dub.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

That's the dub, okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

So that was me kind of getting back into the beat making without having to sample. I just get somebody else to play the stuff and then I put it together. Did it live in the studio when they played? Yeah, yeah. He came to, yep.

SPEAKER_04 30:26

See, there's there's added value to that too.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Yeah, it's a little bit of a Yeah. Y'all say studio, it sounds fancy. It's just a bedroom with a couple of things.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Like, we're adding, you know.

SPEAKER_04 30:35

First studio. I made my bedroom closet. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 30:40

It was the first shit Kevin recorded was in my bedroom closet. That's how, yeah, that's how we start. I prefer that anyway to big professional studios. It feels so it feels like work. Like I'm just at home chilling. I got the TV right here. Yeah. And I feel like recording, I'll record kind of like I take, I like to take my time with it.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

You know, you gotta be in the right mood and the setting. So it's like that's good that you have it in your house where you can like just feel comfortable. Because sometimes like when you're going to studios or bigger places, you're like, oh my God, I gotta be on point. Like, yeah, this is pay, this is money coming out of my pocket. Every time they hit record, like Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

And that could be good too, though. That could be good too to kind of you know keep you on track. Right. The fire behind you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I like my I noticed my music is more weird because I have one song on The Sunflower where I recorded in a professional studio and my song ADD Flows, which is like my my favorite song so far that I that's released. And uh that was in a professional studio. I was nervous and I was like, I gotta get this, you know, I gotta get it done right. And it came out great. Right. But also have other songs where I'm where I'm being more weird and being more confident and trying different things.

SPEAKER_04 31:40

And you can play more because you don't have any time stretch. And if you don't like it, you can do it again tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 31:45

Exactly. And that's raindrops. That's what raindrops is. Nice, nice.

unknown 31:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

So how do you balance it all?

SPEAKER_02 31:51

I don't know. I well, I'm I'm getting more comfortable with saying no to things that I really don't want to do or not in the headspace to do. Yeah. That's that's kind of the toughest thing. And you gotta be okay with people being upset with you sometimes, but no, I need to I need to be at home right now. I need to relax. You know, I just got off the road and you know, whatever, whatever. I just performed, I just did this, I just did that. And then certain people need things from you. And sometimes you gotta be like, I can't right now. I just I can't offer it to you. You know, and I think I've had like anxiety attacks about like, you know, feeling like I have to do everything and be everywhere at one time. Yeah. So yeah, just being comfortable saying no and and being able to understand what's important, what's important at the moment. You know, and I gotten better at not responding to messages with how I'm feeling. Because if you text me and ask me for something right now, I'm I'm like, oh my god, it's too much, it's too much. Right. So I'm like, let me respond and later. Yeah, like an hour later to see how I'm feeling. Because I say no to everything.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

I'm like, oh my gosh, I need to take a second, just take a breather.

SPEAKER_04 32:54

I should have just I pretty I pretty much need to like wait 20 minutes on 90% of text messages I get. That's just in general. Never on social media. Like, I never need to comment on anything ever, ever.

SPEAKER_02 33:06

Same man, social media makes you stresses you out. Yeah, it does. That's like a whole other job.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

Do you have any like healthy tips that you do, or do you like walk, meditate?

SPEAKER_02 33:19

I mean, not like any type of scheduled meditation or anything like that, but I do like to go for walks. I like to run just to, you know, catch my breath. And I don't know, man. I just just I just communicate more. Like I talked to my I talk to my wife about how I'm feeling. That's why I love her so much. I can just that's the only person I can just tell her exactly how I'm feeling at the time. You know, I can't really do that with with a lot of people. And even if it's something that it might sound mean or I might sound a little aggressive, she understands, like, okay, you just you needed to get that out, you know. And then I don't know. I don't know if I have any tips for anybody because everything works different for everybody. This is true. Yeah, yeah. So just you gotta figure out what works for you, man. Figure out what your recharge is, you know. Get to that point where there's nothing. I like to get to the point where there's nothing to do. Like when there's nothing at all.

SPEAKER_04 34:07

That's yeah, that's peaceful too. Do you do you take like long breaks, like vacations or or hiatuses or can't afford it? No.

SPEAKER_02 34:14

Nah, nah, man. Time time keeps moving. I kind of I take a little one, you know. I'll take I'll take I'll take tonight off.

SPEAKER_04 34:21

Well, I was at a conference last week and they were talking about people, you know, like people that are running organizations needing to take like uh sabbaticals for like a month to three months every five years. Yeah, nah. I was labeling Oh, I did take three days off for my birthday. Yeah. Well, I mean, they weren't saying every year, they were saying like every five years. You take you take a break so that you don't get total burnout or whatever. But and I was like, I mean, you know, that'd be beautiful. People do that in places like France and stuff, but like I can't I can't imagine that being feasible for most of the things I'm involved with.

SPEAKER_02 34:53

Jump back into it with the same type of energy. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

But aren't they starting starting the the four-day weekend thing? Did you see that? Man, I was like, Oh, here's that. Oh, yeah. Trying to pass a bill where you can do we could do four-day weekends instead of like, you know, just Friday, Saturday, and Sundays.

SPEAKER_04 35:09

Well, so I mean, you like so there's a lot of ways this will work out. So there's there's there's you could do four tens, you could do four 10-hour days, and then you alternate so you get a four-day weekend and a two-day weekend, and then you still got a 40-hour week. The other way is that they reduce you to and they reduce your hours, which is fine if you're on salary. Yeah. If you're on hourly, you fucked. And see, every time they start being like, oh, we're gonna do this, it's like it's like it's like the idea of unlimited PTO. Except you don't get paid the same. Which doesn't work out. Right, right. Like somebody, somebody, somebody always got an angle on it. So I don't, I don't know. I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to research that.

SPEAKER_00 35:49

I'm gonna write the So what current projects do you have coming up?

SPEAKER_02 35:56

There's the the raindrops, and after that, videos and I I don't know if I had told anybody yet, but I wrote a movie. Oh wow. I had a short film. I wrote a short film, I filmed it and everything like that. Oh, you already shot it. Yeah, it's done, man. Oh wow. I'm nervous about telling people for some reason.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

I just saw somebody post something. Cedric, I'll send it to you. Yeah how to submit your short film to something. I was like, do I know anybody who did a short film? So that's crazy that you I just saw it this morning, so I'll send it, I'll tag you it on Facebook.

SPEAKER_02 36:21

Yeah, I did a little short film to go along with the album. It'll the short film probably be like June-ish. Like, gotta let that breathe a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:29

Did you you you edited it? Yeah, I shot it, edited it, thing is pretty good. Wow. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:35

You still doing it all.

SPEAKER_02 36:37

Yeah, you had 120 million badges. What's your assignment? Right. I'm a Sag, man. Sagittarius. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 36:43

I don't know if that lines up. Yeah. You don't you don't know your full NATO?

SPEAKER_02 36:47

Full chart.

SPEAKER_04 36:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I need to assume. You got some water sound going on somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

I don't know. I feel like it's ready when it when it's ready. I just feel like the album is so good. I know this, I know it's good. Yeah. You know, so I'm gonna just focus on this and then or focus on pushing this. And then when the when I feel like the movie is good, then I'll start pushing that. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:05

So yeah, let us know so we can help support and you know, get the name out there, you know?

SPEAKER_02 37:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely. Definitely. And then y'all have like regular events that y'all do, right? Every every Thursday we do. Yep, we interview local artists, entertainers, business owners. We also do an open mic that same night. So and I get to perform too. So and where's that at? This is at My House Restaurant, 72052 Notch Road. Nice every Thursday at starts at 7 to like 11-ish.

SPEAKER_00 37:32

That's good. That's a good way to network and collaborate, but then also promote yourself. Yeah, yeah. At every show. So yeah, you're gonna hear this new song.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

Yep. We even got the we have the Hilo art backdrop, and then we have my poster in the middle. So when people are performing and you know, they're recording themselves, I'm all in the background. All branded. Every video is cool.

SPEAKER_04 37:52

Yeah, I mean, and it sets you up as a local like event promoter. Yeah, you know, it puts you in the community, lets you talk people like us that are doing stuff, people all over the community doing stuff. Yeah, absolutely. I see, I see your smart marketing tags, man.

SPEAKER_02 38:05

Now look, look, look, look, look, that's that's my dad. My dad is my my dad takes care of the business stuff. He had most of these ideas, you know. I'm I'm the art side, you know. I I got the photo for you, you know what I'm saying? You just he puts it on the poster and puts it up and everything like that. I made this movie. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

Now it's your turn, Dad.

SPEAKER_04 38:22

So when you made this movie, did you just just like make it or did you find grants for it?

SPEAKER_02 38:27

Or like oh no, this is very low budget.

SPEAKER_01 38:29

It's very upset.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

Yeah, like so. Well, no, I have a camera and I have a friend who has a camera. So I wrote the script first because I I I always like to write and tell stories. I went to the art institute and they taught us how to do like scripts and stuff. Where'd you go? Art Institute of Atlanta. Oh, nice. Yeah, for like two years, and I dropped out. But yeah, yeah, I wrote it and everything, and then I I had people in mind, and pretty much everyone I asked said they would do it. So yeah, we just did it. Yeah, we shot I planned it out. I was like, we're gonna shoot it in two days. It's called Raindrops. So I was like, I'm gonna do it at the end of September when it's you know around hurricane season. Yeah. I know it's kind of dangerous. We shot it in the middle of a hurricane. We're outside in the rain. But I think it came out pretty, pretty funny. I think it's you know a comedy, so hopefully people laugh at it. I really just need to figure out how to promote it. I never put out a movie, so I don't know exactly. I don't know how to do a movie poster. You know, I know how to do an album cover. Right. Gotta try to make that translate over. When I figure that out, then you know, y'all will get all the information. But it's gonna be called um, it's gonna be called The Cloudy Day Adventure of Robbie Raindrop.

SPEAKER_00 39:34

I want to learn how to write scripts. We're gonna have to have to do like a little lesson.

SPEAKER_02 39:39

Yeah, yeah. It's really just a format, like it's just the way you format it, you know, but just telling a story and formatting it in a in a way where the dialogue is separate from the yeah, from so this is something you studied to write for media? Well, yeah, I learned a little bit in school because I went for audio engineering, but they made us take like film editing classes and stuff like that. And then I found that interesting, so I went home and would look it up on YouTube on how to do it. Yeah, and once you know the format and how to do it, you just kind of run with it. Yeah, yeah. And I downloaded a program, you know, the script writing, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then also, same with that's how I learned how to edit my videos and stuff like that was from school too. But again, went home and YouTube didn't. Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 40:21

Well, and that's that's kind of the way it is with the conferences. Like when you go to a conference, somebody gives you, you know, like, oh, this is the thing I'm using, and then you go home and Google the shit out of it. Yeah, exactly. Yep. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

So I I took a course where they were talking about uh movie art. So that whole concept, I remember some stuff, but uh I'm gonna have to Google a little bit more stuff, like from YouTube and stuff. But it it doesn't seem hard, whatever, like if you just play off the album and then just give everybody their credit on the movie type thing.

SPEAKER_02 40:52

Exactly. And I just know the posters are more larger size scale. You just gotta figure that out, and it won't be too hard. And I just gotta pay for a professional photographer to come through and do it and arc fiber, you know.

SPEAKER_00 41:04

Somebody can do it off fiber. Arc Fiverr. We use Fiverr a lot. Shout out to the creatives out there.

SPEAKER_04 41:10

Yeah, absolutely. For our animated cover art. Yeah, so you gotta get on there. It's one of our secret tricks that Kevin probably don't want us telling, but he's not here today. We spilling all the juice.

SPEAKER_02 41:21

Right.

SPEAKER_00 41:21

So uh, where can everybody find you on streaming platforms, social media? How can they stay in contact?

SPEAKER_02 41:26

Um, well, on Facebook and Instagram, Chris Mohead, but you want to follow Hilo Art, that's where you'll find all the events. That's Facebook and Instagram. And I think we have a Twitter too, but we we're rarely, we barely post anything on there. And then Hilo Art on YouTube, Chris Mohead on all streaming services if you want to listen to my music. I changed my name. My last album was under Rob Savage. That's ROB.savage. So it's all one word. That's just how I spelt it. So if you want to listen to the Sunflower, you gotta search under Rob Savage. And then all my other music will be under Chris Mohead.

SPEAKER_00 41:58

Cool. Yep. Thank you. This was a good episode. Thank y'all, man. I appreciate it. Yeah. You're gonna have to check, you have to go to Thursday night. You have to check.

SPEAKER_04 42:06

Yeah, yeah. I've been meaning to. I've been I've been seeing it on Insta and uh Yeah, because they go live and everything.

SPEAKER_02 42:12

Yeah, we'll get you an interview too if you want.

SPEAKER_00 42:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:14

You're in there.

SPEAKER_00 42:15

It's real cool. It's real chill. Mike will go down a rabbit hole though, so you won't have to like reel them up.

SPEAKER_02 42:19

Oh, man, no, well, ours is a little different. Y'all's is more of a conversation. We just have like a list of questions, and we're like, you know, this is what we're gonna ask you. Speed round. Yeah, it's pretty quick because we have so many, like that's you know, yeah. We try to interview as many people as we can, and that's why we got like 200 episodes or something, something crazy like that.

SPEAKER_00 42:38

But yeah, y'all got a lot.

SPEAKER_02 42:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:40

So we we're figuring it out though.

SPEAKER_02 42:42

Yeah, nice. But thank y'all so much, man. This is great. I love like talking to you guys, and you know, it was real smooth. So yeah, I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 42:49

You want to give any shout outs to anybody?

SPEAKER_02 42:50

Shout out to Pops, man. Duke Mohead, that's my dad, my business partner. Um, I want to shout out my wife, I want to shout out my son, shout out my mom, and everybody else. You know, shout out to God, you know, he for giving us this beautiful day. It's so nice out. And yeah, shout out to y'all.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 43:05

Thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

So thank you everybody for listening to today's episode. And we look forward to seeing you and hearing from you soon. Follow us all streaming platforms, tell someone you love them. It's a great day outside. See you soon.