30 Years of Artistry - Tony Lucca - Recorded December 27th, 2019
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VoiceAmerica 0:04
One problem facing people at many levels of business is how to make time for a work life and a personal life. Do you find that one seems to keep getting in the way of the other? This is the work life balance with Rick Morris. Even if you're not involved in the business world, you'll have a lot to gain by tuning into today's show. Now, here is your host, Rick Morris.
Rick A. Morris 0:26
And welcome to another edition of the work life balance. So excited. This is our year in show and we've booked a really really special guest for today's show. So normally I like to talk about what happened during the week and just kind of chit chat with you guys a little bit but so excited about the guest I want to dive right in this gentleman is a national bass singer songwriter whose catalogue of music runs the gamut from solo infused pop to tear jerker folk balladry. His musics been featured in shows like parenthood Friday Night Lights, Felicity brothers and sisters. He was Last Call with Carson Daly is a frequent member of the house band. And then in 2012 took third place on NBC the voice which got him a record deal with with Coach Adam Levine and today's a special day because he dropped a new single so let's bring him on to the show. How you doing Tony Lucca?
Tony Lucca 1:20
Man? I'm doing well thanks for the kind words.
Rick A. Morris 1:23
Oh please Ben you're so excited to have you man. You know we started to think you know where we're going to do a year end show but when when our schedules kind of aligned I was like man we gotta we gotta blow it out. And then I feel blessed that you dropped the song only for me and my listeners really just just you know you knew your you wanted to give me a Christmas gift and that was the gift was a new song talk about the new song.
Tony Lucca 1:46
Yeah, man with new song is the first of a handful of recordings that I'm putting out. It's basically in EP like a five song collection that I'm going to parse out one song at a time. These are solo couple Music recordings basically just me and the guitar. Couple of harmony, Harmony overdubs throughout. But otherwise, it's just it's a naked recording. And these were songs that, for whatever reason didn't make, you know, for one reason or another didn't quite make the cut of the final of the full length album that I put out earlier this year. And so I just had some leftover tunes that I've been playing out live people dig them and I'm like, Yeah, I recorded them, they came out real nice. And I said, let's just let's put these out and get folks to listen to and, and that's, that's what we did. We decided to get started here at the end of the year, and triple these out for the next two or three months, I guess. culminating with a five song EP that I'll release in the spring as a physical thing that you can purchase as an entire unit with a maybe a bonus song on there something but, you know, really, we're just trying to get folks to kind of tune in over on Spotify and it was you put these out just as an idea to get my fans to migrate over to Spotify, which is where kind of everybody seems to be hanging These days and you people on the streaming platforms
Rick A. Morris 3:02
well and we're going to get into that during the show is like I want to get into some of the for our listeners some of the business things that they they don't necessarily know like you know iTunes versus Spotify and and just you know different things like that we want to hear about your shows and that kind of stuff but for those of you in my audience that may not have heard me talk about Tony before understand Tony was with us at MMC 30 but you know, Tony, you've got how many EP is out now? I mean, I lost count how many songs you've released, but
Tony Lucca 3:35
Well, yeah, man, I've put out 10 full length albums. There's been a handful of EP throughout the year you know that the shorter four or five to six song collections that I put out occasionally as well. And then like I have three I think two or three DVDs now as well back when that was kind of a thing as well.
Rick A. Morris 3:55
Any media you can but the thing that strikes me about you as an artist And you know you and I've had this conversation a few times, but I've literally seen you in front of 4000 people and I've seen you in front of four. And we won't talk about that time, but the point being, you, you just ooze authenticity on stage. And I actually kind of dig it when it's a smaller crowd because I feel like it we get more of you, but I've seen you play in all different types of arenas and all different types of clubs and all different types of areas. But your authenticity is always on point. That's what always has drawn me to be to become a huge fan of your work.
Tony Lucca 4:34
But thank you so much, man. Yeah, and I feel like there's been times when you know, I, a lot of that I honestly feel comes just from having been at this for so long that you know, you can only kind of pretend or feign enthusiasm or, or pretend to be more charismatic than you really are before people start to kind of see through And before it just gets, it gets exhausting. Like being more, it takes a lot of work just to be yourself, you know, and show up and do the work and connect the people that alone when you're putting on some sort of, you know, image on top of that, that isn't entirely sustainable or something you want to pretend to take part in each time.
Rick A. Morris 5:20
And so in you've had to pivot quite a bit, right in fact, that's, that's one of your platforms. But, you know, when you when you came out early, they were trying to make you more of a pop person, but you've got a really old soul when it comes to music. Is that fair to say?
Tony Lucca 5:35
Yeah, man, and for sure. I feel like when I actually when I made my first album, I had, you know, all my friends, post Mickey Mouse Club, I had friends that were getting out there and really occupying the poplin quite handily. You know, they had it, they had it covered. And so I was kind of more like going to venture forth on the path less traveled, maybe and So I was really into some more adult music and and kind of the Adult Contemporary even wave jazz stuff way too early, you know, back in the, in the early mid 90s. And so when I made my record, it was very much more like, Sting dream of the blue turtles or you know, it was it was it was kind of heady and jazzy. It had some jazz influence to it. And the lyrics were really sort of flowery and esoteric and the songs were four and five and six minutes long, and I really off on the deep end, trying to be like this mature artist and then over the years, I've kind of figured out that wasn't really selling a ton of records and on my way back closer to the to the pop lane, but But yeah, man, I've given it, I've tried it all and just just, you know, out of curiosity out of interest, my interests have changed over the years and so my tastes to change and I've tried to make music that reflects that. You gotta try to stay fresh and excited and inspired along the way and you know, it just The commercial viability sort of comes and goes waxes and wanes but but yeah through it all man I've really just tried to to maintain some aspect of quote unquote being myself
Rick A. Morris 7:12
well we see that we actually got to see a little bit of a front lane you know, front row seat in that if you watch like friends of yours Justin and JC you know they had a certain vibe that they did an insane but when they got to go out on their own and really explore it right it was almost like Justin was more drawn to Michael Jackson type five where where JC was drawn more to kind of Prince in that area. Sure, right. But but but that was them expressing themselves. So I think you've got to go through those evolutions to really find where you're at, but today it seems like you're making music that you just really enjoy not necessarily for obviously we want to consumed but being really proud of where you're going with the music. Is that is that right?
Tony Lucca 7:57
For sure, man. You know, I've just more times than not I learned I've learned that the opportunities I get to sit down and play music and connect with people, whether it's like you said in front of four people or 400 people in a club somewhere or venue, the way it works best for me is with me and a guitar so I'm not going to try to write something that's super pop heavy, you know, musically, if at the end of the day my best foot forward is playing it with an acoustic guitar. So a lot of the stuff that I right now holds up camp fire style, you know, I mean, I can still deliver it on a bigger stage to a lot of people but but through and through I just become really, really taken ownership of the storyteller aspect of what I do and and the roots music, the Americana, you know, sort of singer songwriter thing that's that's definitely where I land more times than not.
Rick A. Morris 8:49
And I want to urge the audience obviously go by the music, but you've got to catch Tony live. I just, I there's a lot of songs that you do Tony that I love. I love listening to him but but when I hear you do it live it's just such a different vibe and and it just comes off it's I don't know like we need to do a live album for you so people really just get that experience of what it's like and where they can just come out and see it right either way they got to see you live dude.
Tony Lucca 9:16
Yeah, no, I appreciate that man. And I did I put a record out I've got a live record out there on on the you know, iTunes and I believe it's on Spotify. It's called live live at jammin Java which is one of my favorite venues in the country up in Vienna, Virginia. And yeah, I took I had a power trio at the time, which was really cool a lot of fun and we were in the middle of a tour and really kind of firing on all cylinders and had a pretty great show and everything got recorded. I didn't break any strings and nobody laid any you know, clams out there. pretty solid. Things were like you know what, man, let's put this out. So we put it out and, and I feel like there's a there's an energy to it that that isn't on the record, but even that a live recording is The same as the energy of a room when you play it, you know, that's true of something, something gets lost in translation minutes. So we're,
Rick A. Morris 10:07
I think, again, just hearing it. Like my one of my favorite venues to watch is Red Rock Canyon, but it's the it's the way the music vibrates in that place, you know what I mean? There's just additional energy that comes. And purity of sound for sure. So, we want to get into, I'd like to get into some of the business side of things and really kind of pull back the curtain a little bit, especially for some fans that may be, you know, listening, and that kind of stuff, some of these choices that you have to make. We're going to do all this after a break, though. But just to kind of lead into it. You know, how do you choose to release a song? What are those options and things that you have to think through? What are some of the hidden gotchas because the music industry has changed so drastically over the last really 10 years. You've got to change a lot of rules. So we're going to talk about all of that when we come back from You're listening to Tony Luke and Rick Morris on the work life balance.
VoiceAmerica 11:15
Are you frustrated with the overall productivity of your project management processes? Do you lack consistency and project delivery? r squared consulting provides end to end services to assist companies of all sizes and realizing and improving the value of project management. Whether you want to build a project management office, train project managers or learn how to bring the oversight and governance to your project processes. r squared has tailored best practices to help you in all areas of project management, visit r squared consulting com Are you getting the most out of your project management software? In many cases, it is not the software that is failing but the implementation limitations or processes surrounding The use of that software r squared can analyze your current use and help improve your return on investment. r squared can also suggest the best software for your organization and goals and assist in the selection implementation and training. allow our square to ensure that you are getting the value of your investment visit r squared consulting.com today
Unknown Speaker 12:26
voice America
VoiceAmerica 12:34
you are tuned into the work life balance to reach Rick Morris or his guest today we'd love to have you call into the program at 1-866-472-5790. Again, that's 1-866-472-5790 if you'd rather send an email Rick can be reached at our Morris at r squared consulting.com. Now back to the work life balance
Rick A. Morris 13:00
And we're back this Friday afternoon with singer songwriter Tony Luca and Tony Fun fact the music that we're just listening to coming back through as part of the party when we try to put them back together so
Unknown Speaker 13:14
that is it. Yeah, themes, theme music courtesy the pot a
Rick A. Morris 13:18
is party. Well, you know, I had to find something that that I could play that I didn't have to pay royalties for. And I said, Well, I've already paid a quarter of a million for that I might as well use it right. Yeah. So that's shout out to chase and Damon john the whole crew, right DD? Yeah. But yeah, so brothers and sisters to you for sure. But coming back, so let's get into the business right, because this is not an easy business. And you know, you've got these people out there right now that think that they're going to become these mega stars because they can sing. And at the same time, there's so many aspects of the business a lot of people don't know so what are some of those One or two gotchas and why did you choose to to drip out right the EP versus releasing it and all that kind of stuff just talk us through some of the business stuff.
Tony Lucca 14:09
Yeah man you know I've been been added a long time and it went from the early days of you know, back at the beginning of you know, my website Tony Lucca calm is 21 years old, you know, like in 98. I started my head my own domain and I didn't realize what a big deal that was until years went by and I was like, Oh man, I scored. But you know, like I used to literally have people you know, you could download and print out a form from my website, write me a check and fold it up in this form that you fill that with what you wanted me to sell you and they would send it to my P o box. I would go with my bike. Right. And that would go back to my shed. I had this little work shed out back my house and I had a big this big I'm filled with all my CDs and T shirts and stuff. And so I would like process the orders myself tuck them in these padded envelopes, autograph the back and literally fill out the you know, put their address on there and then put it get back on my bike with my mailbag over to the P o box or back to the post office and mail these things out. And like this is all maybe this would be for Pay Pal. This is before vendetta before online stuff. So yeah, man, I mean, that was the beginning of like, you know, my lemonade stand. Things have certainly changed, you know, and and with the advent of tunecore, and CD, baby and all these online platforms that really brought the DIY thing to, to light and that coupled with everybody being able to sort of record themselves on Pro Tools or garage band or whatever they're doing at home to make quality, you know, radio ready sounding records and next thing you know, everyone's making music. Everyone's put it out and you got to be able to like, sell the stuff and make Some noise you know, for a while there, iTunes was a good venue for me it was a good Avenue. I would put a record out. I promoted via Twitter.
Unknown Speaker 16:10
Was that Sorry?
Tony Lucca 16:14
Okay, yeah, sorry, man. Let me let me get this going just to try to get my MC squared guys I'm sorry apology worries. But yeah, I would say you know the iTunes thing was cool I would promote on Twitter and and and MySpace and Facebook and stuff and let people know I've got music out there. And people would people would pick it up, they would snatch it up and I might poke on to like, you know, the top 10 of the singer songwriter genre for the day or maybe even get the number one for a day or two and that would mean that there might be some money coming in. But then it would it would fade away and and you get replaced by James Taylor and Simon and Garfunkel, Tracy Chapman. Nowadays what's happening is that streaming thing took over fairly quickly, it seems now looking back, and people are like, well, how much do you get paid on Spotify. And what people are having to understand is that the Spotify thing is it's a it's a mental shift. And it's really like it's a super paradigm shift really, in that it's no longer about the money you're making from the music being streamed as much as it is the presence that you have, by by streaming, you know, it's hard for people to sort of quantify and get their heads around the way that the money works on Spotify, everyone looks at Spotify and says the math isn't there. And it's it's it's a, you know, that the artists are getting the shaft and they're getting the, you know, the the short end of the stick, but it really is, if you it's kind of like if you could go ahead and monetize every time living on a prayer gets played on the radio. They're not making a ton of money every time. That's not It's played on the radio, but it gets played millions of times a year. And so they're making the royalties on that number of times a year. Well, now you've got artists that are unknown artists that are out there getting hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of, of streams a year that are making a few thousand dollars, you know, 10s of thousands of dollars a year in streaming revenue. Basically, without, you know, without having spent all that money on a radio campaign or a marketing campaign, they're just they've learned how to make music that people want to hear on Spotify. And now people are streaming. But more importantly from all of that is is that these artists now have careers where they can go play shows, and sell tickets and sell merchandise and do better off on the back end, versus the actual sale of the music itself. And so people are having a hard time kind of come to terms That except the artists that are profiting from it. They picked up what if Spotify was putting down and now they're going full bore on it. I am trying to sort of get my fans who kind of grew up in that post you know CD era of like what do we do now you know and iTunes versus you know Pandora where do they get their music How do you reach these people and so now we decided to put out this new EP one song at a time to try and get people to to slowly one song at a time make their way over Spotify, just start learning how to use the platform a little more. And it sure it's still available at Amazon and still available on iTunes and Apple Music. But but basically by encouraging folks to pre save on Spotify and and share it and playlist it and and make use of it over there. It helps me when it comes to trying to make make waves Over at the at Spotify and get my music playlist ID and, and and and stream.
Rick A. Morris 20:07
And so, I mean, if we look at the business aspect of the dollars and cents in the CD world or the record world even, you know, prior to that there was the production costs there was the materials that went to there was the company that actually did the pressing and artwork and all that other stuff. So I mean, quite frankly, when you buy a CD for 10 bucks and in, you know, pennies on the dollar still go into the artist at that point, right, so I can see how the math works out in terms of Spotify and royalties. It basically took the radio format and and monetized it for the web, except that we have personal selection, right versus the radio, you just kind of the DJ is in control. We're now the DJ.
Unknown Speaker 20:50
Exactly.
Rick A. Morris 20:51
And so it's very cool. As a matter of fact, you know, you and I talked about, you know, the interview topics and you said, you know You wanted to talk about new EP and right here in the single release strategy. That's some of the things we're gonna talk about. But you didn't tell me that you were dropping the song today. And so I go to Spotify every Friday and I have two playlist ones new music Friday, the other ones release radar. And yours was the number one song on my release radar this morning when I when I popped it open. And I was like, he would tell me talking to the guy today, he would tell me, but but the point being is, that's where I find all of my new music and new artists is through release radar. And Spotify, you know, uses all their algorithms and figures out what it is that I like, and for some reason, they think I like you. So they made you number one at my release radar today. So that was that was good stuff. But the point being is, is that discovery Avenue is so huge in the Spotify world.
Tony Lucca 21:51
It really is and I think that that's how they're making it work you know, and and it's an uphill climb and make no mistake, it really is hard. Because, you know a lot of these editorial playlists that Spotify puts together you know that like they're each each each spot on a playlist is so highly coveted that artists, labels, you know, everyone's trying to find the curators of these lists and I know someone's got to be making like a really interesting documentary on this you know, because it really is we're going to look back on this season of, of music and be like, wow, that was really going on and no one was kind of aware of it because it's like the Wild West right now. You have but it's an interesting version of it. You know, you have these these playlist curators that that kind of can't be reached in a way you know, and I know so little about it, but I know that like it, there's this there's there's tastemakers out there and and the folks at Spotify, you know, they they know who to who, who's, who's doing this. They know how to make it happen they know how to get music out to the people who really want to tune into and listen to
Rick A. Morris 23:05
it. So as we as we look at that even as a as a format you know, if you look at books if you look at music, it you know what happened with YouTube, really, you know, take Justin Bieber for that matter. But, you know, when when I was trying to sell my first book, the first thing I had to prove to them is that I was going to get in front of people. And so the interesting thing around Spotify and YouTube is you can say, well, I've already got X amount of fans. And it starts to take a lot of the guesswork out especially for the commoditize versions of things that you're going after. So look, I already got you know, 50,000 people are going to buy whatever it is that I dropped. I'm trying to reach more and so it's it's interesting to see that we can actually prove that what popular in order to become more popular I guess is the way to say it.
Tony Lucca 23:53
Yeah, for sure man. And that's the thing is like I get to know how people are coming to know my music by Bye when I when I play shows and people show up to my shows, and they're all, you know, letting me know just just that, you know, hey man, your, your, your, your music always pops up in my window, you know, like people, you know, are not my window but but Spotify is put me on putting you on my discover radar and well that's cool. All right, then cool, then you're meant to be here this show. Thanks for coming out.
Rick A. Morris 24:26
So we're going to take a break here in a second but I want to kind of kind of set you up for the for the next segment. I'd love to hear as as an artist, what some of those kind of fan moments you know, feel like so for instance, one of the first time she realized people were singing along with your with your music, it's always a big moment for an artist. So not only did they come out to see you, but they they memorized everything that you do. And we really want to kind of get into some of those moments and maybe you know one or two fan encounters that are What are some of your favorites? So we're gonna do that when we come back after the break. We're talking to Tony Lucca, you're listening to work life balance.
VoiceAmerica 25:19
You frustrated with the overall productivity of your project management processes Do you lack consistency and project delivery? r squared consulting provides end to end services to assist companies of all sizes in realizing and improving the value of project management. Whether you want to build a project management office, train project managers or learn how to bring the oversight and governance to your project processes. r squared has tailored best practices to help you in all areas of project management, visit r squared consulting com Are you getting the most out of your project management software? In many cases, it is not the software That is failing but the implementation limitations or processes surrounding the use of that software r squared can analyze your current use and help improve your return on investment. r squared can also suggest the best software for your organization and goals and assist in the selection implementation and training. allow our square to ensure that you are getting the value of your investment visit r squared consulting.com today
Unknown Speaker 26:29
it comes to business you'll find the experts here voice America business network.
VoiceAmerica 26:41
You are tuned into the work life balance to reach Rick Morris or his guests today. We'd love to have you call into the program at 1-866-472-5790. Again, that's 1864725790 if you'd rather send an email Rick can be reached at har Morris r squared consulting.com Now back to the work life balance
Rick A. Morris 27:06
and we're back chatting with Tony Lucca talking about new singles talking about stage experience and just the business itself but I did want to get into kind of that fan experience you know I had Dale got Baldo and chase Hampton on the show really I think it was like the week after two weeks after MMC it just kind of a show for us to reflect on that fan experience. Yeah. But talk to me about you know, some of those kind of like some of the coolest moments you've had just doing this in in you know, ways people have have touched you back.
Tony Lucca 27:40
Well, yeah, man, you know, like we didn't. It's crazy. Looking back on like the whole Mouse Club thing when we did our spin off album, The MMC thing and we went out on the road and played shows of in essence original music, songs that had never been out in the world before until we recorded and released them. And then we would go play these shows on the weekends and people would like flock to these shows and they would, they would sing the songs back to us and it felt it felt awesome. But it was also like, just the next step from what we did on the show where we were covering other people's music and people were singing the lyrics back to us, it just kind of felt like the next consequential step to what we had already known. It wasn't until like years later and still even to this day when I would get to play a show, you know, say in New York or LA or somewhere and, and I'll play a song like death of me off of Canyon songs are pretty things from come around again, and I'll start playing the first verse and people will just the whole room will just start singing the song and, and it's like, you just, I tend to like hit my my my tuner pedal, which meets my guitar, and I step away from the microphone, and I just, I just listened. I just play my guitar. unplugged in the room and and just like it that will never get old that could possibly ever get old you know to be like, wow man this is this is that's just when you know what you have done has touched people, man. And that that's really like again when you're younger you don't you don't think of it as touching people you think of is like hey, these people like what I do and they think I'm cool and yeah, when you get older and you're really out there like banging your head against the wall so many days, you know, you're just trying to like, make a dent and have some kind of impact and you go play a show where people singing music back to you. You just you know, it's like okay, I'm not crazy. And, and this this, this feels like I'm doing what I should be doing.
Rick A. Morris 29:45
You know, it's it. That is a special thing in valley that people don't understand how cool it sounds coming back to that focal point of the stage right. It is just the way the acoustics work but What about you know a letter that you got or somebody that reached out to you that just it just something that that you won't forget any any of those types of stories?
Tony Lucca 30:10
Yeah man there's been some some funny ones
Unknown Speaker 30:16
will save for the memoir
Tony Lucca 30:21
crazy like super fans out there as
Rick A. Morris 30:26
well steer clear those stories at this point yeah.
Tony Lucca 30:29
But you know yeah man there's just been there's been quite a few over the years there's been a lot of people that will just fans that will reach out through any of the various social media platforms and, and and they'll just like, just drop into say, hey you know, your music helped me through a really hard time. I lost my mom to cancer and she would listen to your music while she was having her chemo treatments and like I can't even begin to get my head around. accompany my mom to chemo treatments let alone like just how important and priceless and precious that time is alone to think that my music matters enough to someone in their life that that they would want me there you know yeah but that is that's the heavy stuff man that's when you just like wow okay this is this is so much bigger than what me and my little ego set out to accomplish when I started trying to play songs for people you know this is this is powerful man and and then you know and then as you as you develop your craft from now on out you start to like really own own that responsibility and cherish that blessing man. But yeah, I wish I could say like that, but there was like one singular thing but, but by and large man, I have been blessed to get quite a few of those little reminders over the years and I'm grateful for each one.
Rick A. Morris 31:49
Yeah, I've not done anything near the scale that you have. But you know, I'll get an email from time to time from, you know, speech I did three years ago and it I say you know, two years ago you were here and you said this and whatever that is, it is a humbling feeling just to take a step back and go wow, I really do have an impact on people. When did you start to really recognize though that that you said something really beautiful just second ago that you didn't realize the music was really touching people? It's not not in your early age. When did you start to really become aware of that?
Tony Lucca 32:30
I don't know man. I think it was you know, like a handful years into my, my, my pursuit my career of making records and writing songs and playing you know, I I started to write songs about people in my life circumstances in my life specific things specific people. And then I would like I remember writing a song once about my sister and I who, after high school, we kind of part of ways I I moved out west to California, she stayed in Michigan and we were just bound to see much less than each other. And even starting in like, when I was 15 we started to see much less of each other because I was constantly coming and going to do the Mouse Club but but once I moved out to California was out there for a couple years, I had come home at one point, and I and I wanted to play her this song, you know, just because I thought she would be proud of me, you know, like, just Hey, check out this is what I'm doing, check out what I'm doing. And I and I played the song not haphazardly or carelessly but just more so like I was out to just perform it for her and show her what I'm up to. And she she listened to it and it was about her and I barely made it through the song before both of us were like sobbing. And she just, she just was so moved by it and and then I was to in return and realize like, Whoa, this is this is a very big gas pedal You know, this isn't this is a big trigger you know like this is you got to use this thing with care and wow okay, that literally from that time on I realized like okay, I can't just be throwing these sentiments around you know all willy nilly like there's that it's worth it to kind of take the time and understand not just how it feels to get it off your chest but imagine being you know, person in the other set of shoes on the receiving end of it, you know, how how are they going to take it How is it going to be received by them and
you know, let alone all of the bands and people out there that have heard my music and have taken it to interpreted their own way and like made their own sense out of it. And you know, that have blown me away by like, Whoa, I didn't mean that at all, but that's what you got off but okay.
Unknown Speaker 34:53
Look at me go.
Rick A. Morris 34:56
I'm trying to think of the song Cuz I remember the first time I heard the song. But there's a lyric smells like Los Angeles.
Tony Lucca 35:07
Yeah, that's a song called anchored.
Rick A. Morris 35:09
Anchor. That's it. So when I first heard you lay that down, I was like, dude, I know exactly what you're talking about. Because there's, there's just something different in LA right it just la la. We had a song, the party that we did la it. In fact, the little group that we put into it, Fergie ferdie dropped something like three weeks after we were done recording it, which kind of already made it irrelevant. But yeah, there's so many songs about la right now. out and about, but there's that one move, not moving up. Wasted for me is is always just been my go to tune. There's nothing better for me walking through an airport and listening to wasted I don't know what it is. But
Tony Lucca 35:57
it's gonna get a cool groove to it, man. Sure well
Rick A. Morris 36:00
yeah when you do the the say say portion but still you know, you and I, we participate in a couple of other things and so we got to spend some time with other friends and just kind of discuss, you know, some more personal details. But Music has always been a trigger for my mood, like I have playlist for when I'm ticked off a playlist when when I'm super happy. I want to be creative playlist when I need to be pulled out of a funk. And so music is just, I have all the talents that are out there. I don't wish I could slam dunk a basketball. I don't wish I could throw football and in play professional sports have always admired birthing music right now, not even the people that can just play it. Well, you know, it's, it's when somebody says a lyric or a line that just makes you go, I just felt that you know what I mean? Like, that's exactly what I'm feeling right now. That's exactly what I needed to hear right now. And I think it's one of the greatest talents on Earth as simple as that.
Tony Lucca 36:59
Well, I don't Hey, what's interesting is that I used to, it took me a lot of years to figure it out about how
the I used to try to be real broad with my imagery and my ideas and you know, universal and just sweeping in. And and then I think it was like, either Bob Dylan or someone talking about Bob Dylan about how Ironically, the more specific you are with your detail, the more universal your appeal, like you don't have to have ever have sat in traffic on the four or five freeway but if you heard that in a song, in regard to it being a horrible thing, you would equate it to being in traffic on 65 in Birmingham, or I for in Orlando, you know, somehow you would you would you would make your own version of it, and then someday down the line, you're going to wind up in traffic on the four or five you'd like all my God
you're gonna you're gonna be in Los Angeles in the wintertime you're gonna be like, God that's what he's talking about. That's pretty interesting smell
it's gonna it's gonna make some fireworks go off you know and and you know, you can't underestimate the listener you can't you can't rob the listener of of their, their ability to interpret and internalize and personalize what you say. It's a beautiful art form.
Rick A. Morris 38:32
I think the people in New Jersey can relate to how it smells in Los Angeles. just literally when you cross the bridge, dude, as soon as you cross the bridge, sometimes stereotypes are just true. That's all there is to it anyway, yeah. But we're not gonna go there. Sorry, Jersey fans were just you know, one of the things that's always impressed me about you to Tony's is I mean, you're you're an avid reader and you've gotten a lot. You've gotten a lot deeper in the thing. That you you've kind of delved into, and I think that translates to your music very well as well. But what are some of those kind of favorite books or hobbies or things that you like to get into?
Tony Lucca 39:09
Oh, man, yeah. I, one of my favorite books, I probably bring this book up in conversation, discussions, interviews, whatever, at least once a month. It's totally crazy. But it's a book by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. called cat's cradle. And I read this book every three to five years just to refresh on how dense and wonderful that book is. I would highly recommended it's a totally fun ride. You can read it on a on a flight. It's not a big books on a long one, but it's one of my favorite books. And in in this book they talk about it's it's kind of a pseudo fiction tale. It starts off rooted in history, and then it goes up on this wild goose chase, and especially the long long form but there's this idea in the book about About two two parallel concepts of our human existence one is the crass kr a SS and the other is the grand saloon. And the grand saloon is like that connectivity that we have. We're like your Indiana Hoosiers alum you go to a bar you see someone with a Hoosier sweater on you're like hey bro and you guys are in like Alaska you like others uh, who's your Who's your Who's your What's up man, you guys like you know each other somehow. But you don't know each other at all. It's like, still there's like this arbitrary randomness that makes you belong to one another, then the crass are the people in our lives that we intersect in like the spider web of our experience here that without that person, you would not have gone on to the next meaningful chapter of your life. You wouldn't have the people that helped you take a right when you could have gone left that that sort of more deeper, meaningful thing. So I've always got a kick out of those two concepts. And when I see them in real life play out, it's like, that's what Kurt Vonnegut was talking about. I love it.
Rick A. Morris 41:00
Good, it is good stuff. I have read that but there's actually a whole science behind the wanting to belong, why you could be why you can be in Alaska bump into somebody with an Indiana sweatshirt and feel like you know each other. Right? But there's a science of persuasion behind that. And it's, it's we like people who like us are like us. And so because we share the same interest, then we're going to like each other as simple as that. So we're going to take one final break right here. We'll be right back with Tony Lucca. We're going to ask him the question we ask all of our guests is what is some of the best advice he's ever received? We also want to find out about shows and that kind of stuff that's coming up where you can go see Tony for yourself. So we're gonna take a break right here you're listening to Rick Morris and the work life balance.
Unknown Speaker 41:57
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VoiceAmerica 42:04
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You are tuned into the work life balance to reach Rick Morris or his guests today, we'd love to have you call into the program at 1-866-472-5790. Again, that's 1-866-472-5790 if you'd rather send an email Rick can be reached at our Morris r squared consulting.com Now back to the work life balance.
Rick A. Morris 43:42
And we're back to the final segment of the work life balance talking with singer songwriter Tony Luca and you know Tony King. We have a lot of people are fans of the show that are in the Maxwell team with me. So we're happy to announce the that you've just joined us in that endeavor.
Tony Lucca 44:01
Yeah man I'm really looking forward to to getting in there is so much wonderful things to learn so many wonderful things to learn and what a great impact that's that's bound to have.
Rick A. Morris 44:14
And so for those of you attending IMC in March come find us and it'll be Tony's first experience so we'll we'll welcome them to the family into the team and indoctrinate them as we should we'll see if we can't get them on stage and sing in front everybody to but that's that's a side thing Yeah, the one night only concert at the at the Marriott in Orlando. But So talk to me just tell the fans how to how to find your music how to get to you what shows are coming up just just the good stuff.
Tony Lucca 44:46
Yeah, man Tony lucca.com LBCC a calm is alive and well. I believe there's a splash page currently on there now that if you go to tell him to calm you, it will give you the option to check out the 2020 by requests. tour is what I'm doing basically this whole next year I decided to, to dub all of my tour efforts. The 2020 by request, retrospective tour sounds a little crazy. But what I'm doing is trying to utilize Facebook and social media to generate engagement with fans to get them online. Let me know what show you're coming to post your requests and things you want to dedications And ideally, I go out and play each show each night, purely by request, and we'll do some things in house, obviously, for people in real time that want their requests honored. But yeah, man, I'm blowing the dust off of like 20 years of record making, going through my whole catalogue, going to relearn some songs and go go back over some things. And basically try to make my whole catalog available to fans for requests. Because a lot of times I get out and play shows people request a song from like one of my first two or three albums and like Yeah 15 years. So I'm done with that excuse for 2020 and I'm gonna give folks with a what they want to play the classes.
Rick A. Morris 46:14
That's awesome. Dude, that sounds like this sounds like a great time. Where are you doing that? What are some of the cities you're going to do that? So
Tony Lucca 46:19
yeah, some of the cities are going to be hitting up Boston and New York, Philly, Pittsburgh. I'm going announcing a whole new crop of dates here after the new year. We're looking at doing dates in March, April and May going through the Midwest again. Indiana, Chicago, Michigan, both Spring Lake and like orien, Ohio, making my way down to Atlanta, and Charlotte, DC. Yeah, just basically that and that's just the first half of the year after after the summer. I usually do a big family Griswold style. vacation slash tour, where I book shows and the kannaway circuit basically, we play shows and then do some camping in between shows, make my way back out west for some shows in the summer, and then probably come back through the Texas and golf states later on in the fall.
Rick A. Morris 47:20
And so yeah, and I actually got a chance to hang with you a little bit on the last little grace wall trip.
Tony Lucca 47:25
It was man it was funny because that was after I just did about two weeks out and then rendezvous with the fam down in Birmingham. And that's where we got caught up, which was awesome. But before I went down to Texas, or went down to Florida and had a handful of shows while we did our Thanksgiving down there, which was cool.
Rick A. Morris 47:42
And then Liam is killing it on the drums right? That that was a cool, that was a cool moment.
Tony Lucca 47:48
My, my son Liam is 17 and now he is just killing it. Yeah, he is. He's really come into his own on the drums and he's he's investing in his own stuff. He's playing Like two 300 bucks for a symbol
he's putting high had symbols on layaway and you know like picking out the gear that he wants for his style his sound and i i love it I love seeing the passion set in.
Rick A. Morris 48:13
He's joining the family businesses he
Tony Lucca 48:15
he is I couldn't talk him out of it man.
We thought we had a baseball scholarship but he just like once he started playing drums and I think it was after I had him play a festival with me after in a ninth grade and and he signed his first autograph and I think that was it. He was like Yeah, yeah, baseball so the birds do
Rick A. Morris 48:40
it. Honestly guitar player drummer if you're going to be a musician, I mean, that's the those those are the two that that's the quarterback and and and the wide receiver linebacker for sure. Uh huh. No, but it's great. It's great to see him get up there and jam with you. It's a lot of fun to watch. What's fun to watch? is is you as a dad
Unknown Speaker 49:00
You know,
Tony Lucca 49:02
because I'm a I'm a tough I'm a tough critic, you know, and as a bandleader you've just I've had to be over the years you know, and sometimes I get caught feeling like am I being overly critical because he's my kid or am I just like just just a stickler about things but then I'll look over and I'll see my bandmates playing with him and I'll see them and join playing with him because of how good he is not just because he's my son but like they're getting off on actually jammin with the kids. Like, no, I must be holding this Oh, maybe. Maybe he really doesn't have the goods and I just you know, but I keep telling him like Hey, listen man band leader dad is way cooler the dead dead so just get your homework done. Get all your chores done so we can go jam and I can be the band leader. We can hang out we boys.
Rick A. Morris 49:46
I don't think I've ever had that quote on my show. band leader. Dad is better than Dad Dad. I'm gonna remember that. That one's coming back at some point. I'm just gonna. Am I having a beer with bandleader dead or is it what's what's going down here? So So what's some of the best advice you've ever received?
Tony Lucca 50:06
Man, the best advice was, you know,
just limit the Yes Men in your life. You know, don't surround yourself with people that are just going to tell you what you want to hear, find, find a source of accountability, find, find true constructive criticism and be willing to accept it. But but it's got to come from someone that you trust that has your best interests at heart. And only do it because you want to get better and the only way to get better is to learn what you don't have down just yet. And it took me way too many years to like really get that I shied away from it for a long time. In fact, like my first few records, I kind of produced and or co produced myself because I didn't want someone to come in and tell me. My song sucked. I just couldn't I couldn't put myself up to that kind of rejection like Marty McFly. I just don't think I can take that kind of rejection. I really, I just didn't think I could, you know, so I wouldn't be like, no, I got this. I know it's supposed to sound I'm good, I'm good. But then eventually realized, like, No man, you just insecure and you need someone to come in and help you make it better. You know and just trust that you have a role in this and a good producers got a role in this and I think that comes with any sort of collaborative thing in business, you know, like, there's, there's different job descriptions for a reason, and you kind of have to trust the process sometimes. But yeah, you know, follow your ins and outs, man. It's sort of an engineering term. When you get into the studio thing where you follow your, your signal, you follow your ins and outs, and it's very mechanical sounding advice, but like, it really is, it really comes down to that in life. You know, like, you get out what you put in and where you what you would, what you put your time and attention on. That's what's gonna resonate and grow and flourish, for better or worse, you know, so be Be careful how you're spending that energy in that time and, and yeah, I don't know, I think Yeah, I know you're no you're not shy. I'm an awesome proverbial advice yourself. So
Rick A. Morris 52:14
that's your how to take that.
Tony Lucca 52:17
You are even in the short time we've become closer friends, I've pulled the volumes of helpful insight from you, man. It's what makes this friendship tick. I think
Rick A. Morris 52:26
I appreciate your brother, we love you so much. We gotta we gotta do this again. In fact, we need to do a new show about a transition step for you. So for any of those that that are listening, that are fans of mine through the Project Management Institute, or have seen me speak we're now booking Tony with us as we as we go about so we can talk about dates, we can talk about events, but as you can tell, he's a he's a very well read, very articulate, incredible artist that has an incredible story to share. And we want To start bringing that to some of the business audiences because Business is business, it doesn't matter if it's the music business or the software business, you will have something to learn from from Tony's journey. So we want to make sure that you guys reach out to me via the show, and we'll be happy to set up a conversation. But that's at Rick Morris on Twitter, LinkedIn, is it Rick Morris, Facebook is Rick Morris as well. Or you can go to R squared consulting com. Tony, any last words before we wrap up,
Tony Lucca 53:26
brother. That's it. Man. Thank you so much for the time and attention and yeah, man folks out there. I appreciate you tuning in and hope to see you guys out there on the wide open road.
Rick A. Morris 53:36
Absolutely, brother. We'll talk soon. And next week, we've got rock Thomas, who's the founder of the N one group, which is a large coaching and accountability cut group, but really for very, very successful people. So rock started that several years ago. I'm actually doing his podcast and he'll be joining us next week on the show otherwise Have a wonderful new year and we'll talk to you all next year right here on the work life balance.
VoiceAmerica 54:09
Thank you for joining us this week. The work life balance with Rick Morris can be heard live every Friday at 2pm pacific time and 5pm eastern time on The Voice America business channel. Now that the weekend is here, it's time to rethink your priorities and enjoy it. We'll see you on our next show.
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