358 Jay Franze - From Limos to Grammy Wins: Inspiring Journey

Harry Duran [00:00:00]: Where's home for you?

Jay Franze [00:00:02]: You know what? Originally, I'm from Boston, moved to Tennessee, lived there for 20 years, and now I'm up in Kentucky. So Kentucky, Cincinnati area, right over the river between Cincinnati and Kentucky. It's a really nice place to be.

Harry Duran [00:00:18]: Do you have a favorite?

Jay Franze [00:00:20]: Ooh, I have bits and pieces from each location. Like, I miss the food the most from Boston. I can't tell you how bad I miss the food. Tennessee was cool because you're right there in the heart of the music industry. And Kentucky's cool because it's a little more sparse. It's not as congested. It's got beautiful scenery, you know, nice parks and trails and hiking and all that fun stuff. And we're not far from Cincinnati, so if we miss the city, I could just cross the road.

Harry Duran [00:00:50]: As someone who grew up just outside New York City, Yonkers, New York, and actually lived in New York City property, definitely considered myself a city guy for a while. Lived in LA after that. So I had stints in Georgia, but now I find myself in Minnesota, of all places, so.

Jay Franze [00:01:05]: Right. You just don't know how that stuff happens.

Harry Duran [00:01:07]: Life takes some weird turns sometimes. And I just posted yesterday a picture of me letting the chickens out.

Jay Franze [00:01:14]: Right. I tell my wife that all the time. We bought this house four years ago, and I'm not used to. I've never lived in the country. It's a suburb, but we're in the country. And my house sits on a neighborhood lake. It's not like a big lake. It's just a neighborhood lake. But there's ducks and there's the deer that come through, and there's turtles in our yard. And I find all that stuff fascinating. She's like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm feeding the ducks. So, yeah, I've never had that opportunity to do things like this before.

Harry Duran [00:01:42]: So what's your earliest memory of music?

Jay Franze [00:01:47]: Oh, earliest memory. I remember my dad, we drive around in his car, and he had, you know, just a few cassettes. He wasn't a big music fan, but he had probably three or four cassettes in his car. Or eight tracks.

Harry Duran [00:02:00]: Or eight tracks, for sure.

Jay Franze [00:02:01]: Just how far that was. But I remember it was Barbra Streisand, Air Supply and Kenny Rogers. So I would listen to those over and over and over again. So I think that's my first memory of music as a listener. For sure. Yeah. And, you know, Kenny Rogers is just awesome. Or was awesome.

Harry Duran [00:02:21]: Yes. Something about music of that era, because I was born in 1970. So I'm a child of the 80s for sure. And we had, we call it the Radiola, but it was basically the turntable and then the eight track player in this piece of furniture that took up like a corner of the living room.

Jay Franze [00:02:35]: Half the room, right? Yeah. No, that was great. And even in his car, the eight track was a separate unit that was screwed onto the bottom of the glove compartment. I mean, it wasn't like cars today at all. Yeah, it stuck there. It was just so out of place. It was crazy. But hey, he came with a car like that.

Harry Duran [00:02:54]: I'm sure you've experienced this a lot, but there's something so powerful about certain songs. And you mentioned Kenny Rogers and Barbra Streisand. Like you'll hear it and it'll almost be like a time machine. It'll immediately transport you back to age and then feeling like a kid again.

Jay Franze [00:03:10]: Yeah, every time I hear Lady, Kenny Rogers, lady, I can tell you I can smell my dad's car when I hear it.

Harry Duran [00:03:16]: For sure. That's great. When did you like grow that appreciation for music into something more like, you know, realizing you want to get more involved?

Jay Franze [00:03:26]: It was probably junior high school and it was probably, I mean, I grew up in Boston. Boston's known for having a lot of rock bands. I mean, Aerosmith was from there. Extreme. The band Boston themselves, there's just so many rock bands that have come from Boston. And then Boston also has Berklee College of Music which puts out a bunch of jazz students. So there's a lot of music in that area and I just loved it. I would go watch them and I would just be mesmerized by the talent that was in that room. And I just wanted to be like that. And then of course too, you get all the girls who gave all the musicians attention and I wanted that too. So I would write songs and hope to get everybody's attention. It never worked, but I tried.

Harry Duran [00:04:07]: What was the big success you had with music?

Jay Franze [00:04:10]: Oh, a big success. I've worked. I've had ones towards the latter side of the career that were part of Grammy Award winning projects and things like that. I've had a chance to work with probably I lived in Nashville working on country records for 20 years of that 35 year career. And I've had a chance to work with anybody from as far back as Jerry Lee Lewis, Dolly Parton, and I've up to the more recent ones. Probably the more recent ones that I worked on was Keith Urban, Lee Brice, things like that. And now Granted, those were producers that I had the opportunity to work with. I met three producers during my time in Nashville and each one of them were at a different type of music. So one of them was more demo style, the stuff where songwriters would go to them and they'd work out an idea for a song and then record it to try to sell that song to other people. Then one of them was doing mid level artists that we do, the artists that hadn't quite broken yet. And then one of them was doing the big artists that everybody would know. So I had a chance to work on all three levels. And I worked with those three people specifically my entire time there. So I had a chance to work on the biggest of the big to the smallest of the small. And I loved every one of them.

Harry Duran [00:05:30]: There's always those conversations you hear of these incredible recording sessions or late night recording sessions where there was just like some certain magic happening in the room and probably stories that most people can't share publicly, but of your time. It get a lot of things like that of what happens in the recording studio, stays in the recording studio, I'm sure. But are there any that come to mind that are like memorable stories that you can share?

Jay Franze [00:05:55]: Oh, absolutely. You mentioned late night sessions. When I first started, like I said, I was living in Boston and I did go to music school. Whole story behind all that. But I ended up coming back to Boston. And Boston had two recording studios in it. One, they were right across the street from each other, essentially. And one of them, I worked there during the day recording books on tape. And that was fun. I mean, I get to learn, but man, it's like sleepy listening to somebody read all day. And then the one across the street was more at night and they were recording rock bands. And to me, that's where I wanted to be. And I laugh about it now because I didn't realize how much of an idiot I was at the time. But when I left school, I left with that diploma in my hand. And I thought, man, I'm hot shit. I just graduated. I've got this diploma in my hand. I'm the guy. And I got back to Boston, I said, look at this piece of paper. I want to work here. You know, you're lucky to have me. It wasn't quite that bad, but you get my point. And they looked at me and they said, yeah, yeah, we'll take you. I said, great. They said, you can be a freelance engineer. And I had no idea what the word freelance meant at that time. And I learned real Quick that it meant I had to go hustle my own work. So as long as I went out and found the bands to bring in and record, then I get paid. But if I didn't, so be it. That's it. They'll call me if they need me. But so I did that. I went out and hustled every band I could find. And it was about halfway through that experience where the owner of the studio came up to me and he goes, you know what? You're a pretty good producer. I said, I'm not a producer. I'm an engineer. He goes, no, you're a producer. I said, well, I better look up what producer means. So I look up producer. And essentially what he was referring to was the person who organizes the session and brings in the musicians, brings in the band, you know, knows what time to come in and record, knows what microphones to put out, you know, knows how to give advice to everybody in the room. So I realized that's what I was doing. So when I went to Nashville, you know, well, I went to. I went to New York first, worked there for a while, opened up a studio, and I was producing rock bands, you know, massaging that craft of producing. So I again, I thought I was hot. I was doing good. Young and dumb.

Harry Duran [00:08:14]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:08:15]: So I said, okay, now I'm gonna go to Nashville and I'm gonna show them. And I get to Nashville, I'm like, I'm a producer and here I am. And they said, yep, you're an intern. I said, fantastic.

Harry Duran [00:08:26]: Oh, man.

Jay Franze [00:08:27]: So they put me in my place really quick. But it was the best thing for me because I got to work with the best people in the world and I get to see just how good they were. And I got to be with them every day and just absorb that talent. And it was fun. It really was fun.

Harry Duran [00:08:44]: What was that experience in music school? Music school like for you.

Jay Franze [00:08:49]: At that time? I've done it twice. And at that time, there was only this one small school. It's up here in Ohio. It was called the Recording Workshop. It still exists, but it's an intensive program. It was just a small two month program. One month for the core and one month for a specialty. But it was the only school teaching it at the time. So I convinced my parents, my father, specifically, to let me drop out of architectural engineering college in the top three engineering schools in the world to go do music in Ohio for a month. And at the time I thought, it's a college and it's this. No, it was a Music intensive program that I went through, but I went through it and I earned that piece of paper that made me an idiot. But nonetheless, the time there was awesome. I mean, it was a short period of time, but man, I remember it when I first got there because I drove my car. I had a new car and it wasn't anything great. It was just a small Nissan, but it was new to me and I drove it out to Ohio. Actually, you know what? No. I flew to Ohio and my girlfriend drove it out to me when she came to visit. So it was cool, it was fun. But when I got there, there was. The school sits the valley of this hill. And on the hill there was a, like maybe a handful of cabins where the students would live. So their cabins, that house, like, I think it was six bunk beds. So you walk into the cabin, there's six bunk beds. It's really small, it's like the size of one bedroom, but it had six crammed bunk beds. But I was lucky because in my cabin there was only three people. So we each got to sleep on the bottom and store our stuff on the top. So that was really cool. And so I remember the cabins and I remember it's kind of in the woods. And then the only thing, you know, the school was down at the foot of the hill and right next to the school was this little sub shop. That's every sub and everything they served was named after something at the school. You know, like this is the recording sub or this is the eight track, you know, whatever. And I remember that. And it was cool. And they had just one game in there. It was some game where you try to get the maneuver the ball around all the holes and try to get it to the top of the screen. So that was fun. But I explored one day and I just went down to the end of the street and I came across this laundromat. And I'll never forget it because the sign outside the laundromat said laundry, Milk guns and ammo. I was like, what kind of place is this? And then the last biggest piece, I don't even know how I forgot until this point was the area smelt so bad because it was. There's a paper factory right down the road. And I've never. I don't know if you've ever smelt a paper factory, but dear God, it's the worst smell ever. So, yeah, those are my memories of the school.

Harry Duran [00:11:39]: I'm sure if you ever came across that paper factory smell immediately, it'd be like you'd be thinking of the school.

Jay Franze [00:11:46]: Right back to the school, for sure.

Harry Duran [00:11:48]: So you had all these experiences with these bands. When you were looking at book bands to get them into the studio, were you, like, looking for talented bands or anyone who just wanted to record a.

Jay Franze [00:11:57]: Demo at that time? I was looking for anybody that would pay me to take them into the studio. And again, as a young kid, right out of a program like that, they had. I didn't know, have any idea how to sell it, and they had no idea what I was capable of doing, which is probably close to nothing at that point. So one way I found to get myself into the studio and get the experience was I would start writing songs. So I started writing lyrics primarily, and then I would partner up with somebody to do the music. Then I would hire the musicians to come in and perform the music, and then I'd find a singer of a band that I would want to work with, and then I'd hire that singer to come in and sing on my music. And then I would put it together. And at the time, you know, we did. Some people were doing eight tracks. We did cassettes, you know, when they first broke. And, I mean, I put the full glossy artwork and everything. Then when CDs came out, I started putting CDs together with all the. I was always trying to stay one step ahead of the technology piece. I didn't realize it at the time, but by doing that, people liked that because it was one of those things that they didn't know how to do it. So it's just like podcasting when it starts. Nobody, if you haven't done it, you don't know how to do it. And you go to anybody and, wow, you know how to do that. So I was putting these CDs together so people would come to me and ask me how to do that. So I would walk them through the process and, hey, why don't you let me take you in the studio? I can record you over here. We can do this, we can do that. And that worked. So when I went to New York, I took advantage of that and I bought a building in. Built a recording studio in it. It wasn't glamorous once I saw Nashville, but it was mine and it was capable of producing a product. So. But what I did was I built the control room in one live room where people would perform. And then behind it was a workshop, and next to that was a restroom, and then in front of that was an office, and then there was an empty room. So what I did with the empty room was. I set up a photography backdrop and a desk with a computer with graphic design software. So anybody who walked in would have to walk through that room to get to the studio or to get to anywhere else. So when people would come in to record, they would see that. And then I could say, you know, they'd ask me, oh, do you know anybody who do album cover or photograph? Yes, we can do it all right here. And I became a producer that could do all of the different pieces. And I think that's really what helped me make money. Because people, when you're recording music, for whatever reason, nobody wants to pay the people who record the music. The most important piece of the puzzle. They don't want to pay it, or they try to get you to do it at a discounted rate. But when it comes to the photography or the graphic arts, they paid full price every time. Every time. They didn't even ask, how much does that cost? Well, that's, you know, $12,000. Okay. So that's where I was making my money, and I took that money. And then it's funny again. Me and being stupid and doing stupid things. I was sitting in the break room, and I had a CD in my hand. I'm eating lunch with the couple other people that were working there, and I'm opening the cd, and I noted it was a Shania Twain cd. And I flipped it over, and I'm looking at the credits, and one of the credits said, bob Bullock. And I'm like, huh? I said, I'm going to go to Nashville and work for Bob Bullock. Now, the studio hadn't even been open a year yet, and it's my studio. It hasn't even been open a year. I'm saying, I'm going to go to Nashville and work for Bob Bullock. And everybody laughed at me. Rightfully so. They should have. And there was also a magazine on the table. It was called Mix Magazine. And I opened that magazine, I'm flipping through it, and there was an advertisement for sae, which was. It was originally the School of Audio Engineering, but it became SAE Institute of Technology. And I said, I'm going to go teach at sae. And again. Chuckles at the table like, yeah, okay. Well, the next day, I woke up, I locked the door at the studio, and I drove to Nashville. And I was determined I was going to do those two things. I mean, determined. And no one was going to tell me no. So I get to Nashville. I mean, I don't even know if I parked the car somewhere. I Mean, I literally got to Nashville, and I was in SAE's parking lot, and I walk in, and the young lady that was at the counter, I say to her, can you tell me who the director of the school is or the director of education? And she goes, well, which one would you like? I said, the director of education, she points over at the elevator, says, go up one floor and take a right. So I go up that floor, I take a right, and I walk in. And just out of pure luck, I mean, I don't know how this would have ever happened, but it was. My teacher from the recording workshop had gone on to become the director of education at this college. So I was like, this is it. And I walk in and I'm like. He goes, oh, hey, Jay. And what are you doing here? You came by to just visit? I said, no, sir. I came by because I'm gonna work here. I'm gonna be your new teacher. And he says, oh, that's fantastic. He goes, let's talk about your credits. I said, what do you mean by credits? He goes, well, who have you recorded?

Harry Duran [00:17:20]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:17:20]: So I tell him. He goes, who's that? I said, well, that's a band in Albany, New York. And I tell him another one. He goes, who's that? I'm like, well, that's a local singer in Boston. He goes, yeah, you can't teach here. And I said, what do you mean I can't teach here? He goes, you either have to have a college degree in this subject, which I took, a certificate program. He said, or you have to have experience with major acts that would outweigh that, and we can get state approval for you to come in and teach. I'm like, oh, this is serious. This isn't just the little stuff.

Harry Duran [00:17:55]: Community college stuff.

Jay Franze [00:17:58]: So I said to him, okay. And I said, what do you recommend? He goes, go get those two things. I said, I will. I'll be back. I said, I'll be back in a few months or whatever. I said. He goes, yeah. He goes, I have no doubt. So I don't know if he was just joking, laughing, or what, but I left there, and that day I enrolled in a school, and I went to the school and I got the degree, and then I made networks and I was working for these producers, and I was recording records. So I went back to him. I said. He goes, oh, hey, how's it going? You know, how far did you make it? You do anything yet? I said, yeah, I've got the degree and I've got these credits. And he just looks at me, goes, huh? I said, yeah, here's the degree, here's the credits. He goes, you want to start tomorrow? I said, yes, sir.

Harry Duran [00:18:50]: Wow, what a story.

Jay Franze [00:18:51]: So I started, and I was working there maybe a year, and part of my. I worked there much longer, but about a year in. One of the things we would do is we would have these speakers come in. These people from the industry, you know, all the famous producers, engineers, would come in and talk to the students. And what we would do is have our students set up the studio for people. And that way when the guest comes in, the studio is there, they can go ahead and just start demonstrating something or doing something. Well, one day I see on the roster, Bob Bullock is coming into the studio. And I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. So I'm like, okay. And I tell the students, we gotta do this, and it's gotta be the best it's ever been. And they're like, well, we don't have the time. We can't do it. I'm sorry. You know, we might have time between this and that. And I'm like, so I went into the studio and I set it all up myself. And I mean, I spent hours because it was just me. And I got it all set up, and Bob comes in, doesn't even say a word about it or anything. He just comes in, you know, give him his instructions where to go, what to do. He goes in, he teaches the class, they love him. And as he's leaving, I'm walking him out, and he goes, who set up the studio today? And I said, well, I did, sir. I said, I hope I didn't mess something up for you. He goes, no, it was really good. He goes, would you ever consider being my second.

Harry Duran [00:20:18]: Whoa.

Jay Franze [00:20:20]: And right there in the lobby of the school, I said, yes, sir. Yes, sir, I would. And I left there. And I think the first project we worked on from that point was Travis Tritt. It was at one of the biggest studios in the world. And I was like, all right, not me doing the work. You know, I'm assisting, but I'm working on one of the biggest artists in one of the biggest studios. And it was just amazing.

Harry Duran [00:20:46]: What a story. What a collection of stories. So much to kind of unpack there. But it's. You know, people say, like, luck is really when preparation meets opportunity, you know, And I think you literally, like, you had been preparing for that moment and the vision you had. You know, people talk about, like, Will Smith writing, like a one million dollar check to himself or something like that for, you know, as an actor. Something like that, and just framing it. Where did you get, like, this drive? Because throughout that story, I just. There's this, like, inherent confidence or belief that you're destined for something bigger. And I'm wondering, like, where that came.

Jay Franze [00:21:24]: From or could have been stupidity. But no, I've always been a driven person. Even to this day. When I do something, I want to do it to the best I could possibly do it. I'm competitive.

Harry Duran [00:21:36]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:21:37]: I want to be the best out there. I mean, I have a show right now, the talk show, that I do, and I want it to be the best.

Harry Duran [00:21:44]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:21:44]: There's not a week that goes by that I don't think to myself, what could I do this week that'll make it just a hair better or just a hair better? You know what? Can I get a better guest? Can I record it differently? Can I balance the audio differently? Can I put in a new segment? I just want it to be as good as humanly possible. I never settle for, oh, it's good enough.

Harry Duran [00:22:04]: Sure.

Jay Franze [00:22:04]: Because as soon as I do, I get bored. And then I'd want to leave and go do something else. I like to keep it exciting. I like to. I mean, my wife says I'm obsessive. And I have a phrase I say, obsession leads to expertise.

Harry Duran [00:22:18]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:22:19]: But the things that I care about, I'm obsessive over. But then there's. I try to balance that with other things that I just like. Yeah, it is what it is. I don't worry about those things.

Harry Duran [00:22:30]: How are you as a child? Was it clear if I asked your parents, like, back then, it's like, is this Jay? Has this always been Jay?

Jay Franze [00:22:37]: I think looking, you know, that's a question nobody's asked me before. But that's a good point, because I had two brothers, so one of three.

Harry Duran [00:22:47]: Okay.

Jay Franze [00:22:48]: But there's a gap between me and my two brothers. They're six and seven years younger than me, so they're really close. And I was more of a father figure because my father passed away before I even graduated college, so he never got to see any of it. My mother passed away early, but she was around for us all to be adults.

Harry Duran [00:23:05]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:23:06]: But I think the difference was being the first child and being alone that I can remember. My mother would buy me play doh, and I would sit in the living room and watch the Flintstones. And the Flintstones would be on tv, and it would be Fred and Barney at a bowling alley. And I would take that. Play. D'oh. And I would turn it into a bowling alley.

Harry Duran [00:23:28]: Nice.

Jay Franze [00:23:29]: And I'd make the little balls rolling down the little ball return. And I'll set up little pins.

Harry Duran [00:23:34]: Love that.

Jay Franze [00:23:35]: And I just wanted to duplicate whatever I saw. So no matter what it was I saw, I thought, I want to do that.

Harry Duran [00:23:43]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:23:43]: And I can see that. I got three girls, so I went from being one of three boys to having three girls.

Harry Duran [00:23:49]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:23:50]: And I can see that in my girls. They don't settle for us to go watch something. They. As soon as we see it, they're like, well, can we do it?

Harry Duran [00:23:56]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:23:57]: You know, I take them somewhere to watch a game or to watch somebody sing, to watch somebody perform, and they're like, well, are we going to be up there, too? It's like, no, we're going to go watch.

Harry Duran [00:24:08]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:24:08]: What can we do to do it? So I just like being. I'm driven. I've got a lot of drive for. I don't know what reasons, but only for the things I care about. I can't stress that enough. When it's something I don't care about it. I just, like. I let my wife make whatever decision she wants, and it's fine, you know? You want a different comforter on the bed? Sure, go for it. You want to. You want to paint the walls a different color?

Harry Duran [00:24:31]: Yeah. Yeah. You pick your battles.

Jay Franze [00:24:33]: Right.

Harry Duran [00:24:34]: Can you teach that or can you raise, like, kids to have that? Is it inherent? Is it nurture versus nature? Like, what are your thoughts on that?

Jay Franze [00:24:44]: That's good. I do not think drive is teachable. I think the technical parts, absolutely. I think anybody can learn what button to press. You know, I'm sitting in front of a console now. It's not one of the giant ones we use in the recording studios, but in front of me is a console. There's a series of buttons. They're very repetitive. You learn one strip of buttons, you know them all.

Harry Duran [00:25:04]: Sure.

Jay Franze [00:25:05]: So you can learn what the thing's doing when you press them, but what you can't learn is the amount of time it takes to sit there and practice on it, to make it do something.

Harry Duran [00:25:15]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:25:15]: You know, if you get bored easy and you, like, press it, move a few things around and go, oh, that's it.

Harry Duran [00:25:20]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:25:21]: Okay. Well, the big thing, we had a speaker, a guy named Jeff Balding. He came into the college to do a seminar for the students. And it was in a classroom. He was just on a stage, and he was just talking. And he's one of the Biggest engineers in the world. He works for a guy like I worked for Bob Bullock. Jeff Balding works for Dan Huff. Dan Huff is one of the world's biggest producers. He's done countless. I mean, amazing country records.

Harry Duran [00:25:46]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:25:47]: So Jeff Balding is at the. One of the tops when it comes to audio engineers. He was in the school, and one of the students asked him, you know, well, how did you become the guy? You know, what makes you the guy? And he's like. He goes, I'm no better than the other people. Then why do you get all the work? Why do you get to work with Dan Huff? Why do you get to do this? He goes, the key is I stuck in longer than anybody else. He says, I'm not more talented than any of them. And I feel that way about myself, too. I don't think I'm more talented than anybody else when it comes to recording music. I think I just put in more hours, more reps, as, you know, people say. But Jeff Balling said, I graduated school and I went into the studio and I worked. And then I wasn't getting paid. I was an intern and took years before I wasn't an intern anymore. And then I started getting paid, so I was lucky that my friends would let me crash on their couch. And then, you know, when I was getting paid, I didn't have a girlfriend, I didn't have a wife. I didn't have kids. So I was able to keep working. All of my peers went off and got married or had kids or wanted to go on vacations, and that pulled them away. They needed another job at that point to supplement what they wanted to do, he said, so they didn't put in the amount of hours that I put in. So when it came time for Dan Huff that says, hey, I need a guy, he goes, I was the last one in the room. It's not that he had a choice of who to choose. He goes, I was the last one standing.

Harry Duran [00:27:20]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:27:22]: Now, to be fair, too, Dan Huff was his roommate in college, so that.

Harry Duran [00:27:26]: Probably helped a little bit of that, too. Again, preparation, opportunity. Like, I'm sure if he sucks, he would have hired him as well.

Jay Franze [00:27:33]: Right.

Harry Duran [00:27:33]: So just to kind of wrap up on the music side, did you get to the point where you could tell if a band had, like or singer had the it factor?

Jay Franze [00:27:45]: Oh, absolutely.

Harry Duran [00:27:46]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:27:46]: Hands down. And what's funny is most of the celebrities really don't. You know, most of the celebrities, they're talented and they might have charisma, but it's usually one or the other. Very few have both. But there's some. And I kid you, I interviewed a girl this week on my show. She's a 12 year old girl. 12 years old. Just hasn't even been singing a year and she's on stage singing with Jelly Roll and all these other people. She sounds like a full blown adult.

Harry Duran [00:28:17]: Wow. I mean, those are those old souls. Reborn old souls for sure.

Jay Franze [00:28:22]: You know, that's something that, you know, when you see it, you're like, you're good. Okay, I get it. But then there's other people. I mean, I work with producers in the studio. When Auto Tune came out. I don't know if you're familiar with what Auto Tune is, but for those who aren't, Auto Tune is a device that you can use to manipulate somebody's vocal that if it's not in tune, you can now make it in tune. So it sounds like they hit every note perfectly. Yeah, well, when that first came out, everybody wanted to use it and they were misusing it. It sounded very robotic. You could. The biggest example is shares.

Harry Duran [00:28:56]: Oh, yeah.

Jay Franze [00:28:56]: Even Love, which actually went on to.

Harry Duran [00:28:59]: Be a big hit.

Jay Franze [00:29:00]: Right. Because it sounds like effect that you were using on somebody's voice versus a tool that went wrong.

Harry Duran [00:29:06]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:29:06]: So. But the country artists, they didn't want an effect that sounded like something. They wanted it to just make them sound good.

Harry Duran [00:29:15]: Yeah, yeah.

Jay Franze [00:29:16]: And so everybody started using it. And every project I worked on, Bob's projects with these big artists, when they would take their lunch break, I would hang back and I would tune the vocals, you know, and I'd make tune. People that didn't need to be tuned. Some of the best in the world and some of the best in the world that don't know their records were tuned because their producer would say, tune it. And I'd be like, well, you know, they hit all the notes. Yeah, well, tune it anyway. It's like. Well, you can see here on the graph. You can see they hit all the notes. Yeah, but that's not a straight line. That line goes up, touches it and comes back down. Well, I want it to be straight. It's like, okay, so you tune all these vocals for these people who do not need to be tuned.

Harry Duran [00:29:57]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:29:57]: Which kills me. And you know, I did it. Sure, you're right. You're the one right in the check, if that's what you want. But you know, the ones that don't need it. Got it. And then there's the ones that did need it and probably shouldn't have Been there in the first place.

Harry Duran [00:30:12]: And those. Even having the it factor doesn't necessarily mean success, right?

Jay Franze [00:30:17]: No, no. There's some people that are just absolutely amazing and never made it. There's some that are absolutely amazing and they become demo singers in Nashville. A very good example of that. Everybody knows Garth Brooks. Yeah, Garth Brooks was a demo singer in Nashville for years. All the charisma in the world. One of the best singers. He's just an amazing writer. I mean, everything. He can play the guitar. Yeah, he's amazing. Whether you like his music or not, that's up to you. That's personal preference. But as far as talent goes, you can't deny the talent and charisma the guy has. And nobody would sign him to a record deal. Nobody. It was until the. He was about to give up and finally got signed to a record deal. And it was only, you got one chance, buddy. Let's prove yourself. Yeah, but he got it.

Harry Duran [00:31:03]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:31:03]: So that's an example of one that turned out good, obviously. But yeah, I mean, there's a lot of people like that. And then there's some people used to say that with Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift, when she first did her first came to Nashville, made a record, most people did not like her. For whatever reason, they didn't like her. You know, her daddy paid her way into Nashville. It wasn't my talents, it was this or that. That girl, again, like her or not, that girl has more talent than probably all of the artists combined.

Harry Duran [00:31:33]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:31:34]: She's just an extremely well rounded, talented person, whether it comes from the writing that she does. And you can look at the actual craft of writing. The lyrics are very good. They're not just good, but they're not done in a traditional way. They're non traditional lyrics. Their melodies fall into a non traditional way. And she has a way of doing that non traditional stuff and making it commercial and making people like it. And then she has a way of performing it and a way for marketing it and she's involved in every piece along the way. So, I mean, the girl is talented. She deserves what she has. But she had a hard time, a very hard time making it.

Harry Duran [00:32:11]: Yeah. Sounds like she put in the work. So when did you decide you wanted to go from behind or operating the board to getting behind a mic?

Jay Franze [00:32:20]: That's when I got married. Well, there was a little stuff in between there, but I met my wife working in the industry. She was a photographer and a graphic artist. So when I would go into these studios to record these bands, she would be There taking photos, and then she would eventually go back and turn them into album covers.

Harry Duran [00:32:37]: Okay.

Jay Franze [00:32:38]: And we were told we weren't allowed to date because the company we were working for said, you can't date a fellow employee. Blah, blah.

Harry Duran [00:32:45]: Yeah, yeah.

Jay Franze [00:32:46]: Well, after about six months, they finally said, why don't you go ahead and date? So we did. I probably should have said no. I probably should have stayed far away. But she hates me. But no. Or she puts up with me anyway. But yeah. So we got together, and the music industry was at a point where it was about to pivot and make a change. And a lot of people were starting to work at home, so there was less of a need for the big commercial studio. Matter of fact, in Nashville, Music Row, which was a started as two streets. You go up one street and back down the other, and it was nothing but houses that people turned into recording studios. Record companies, I mean, Sony, mca, Warner Brothers, then all their studios and all their publishing companies and all the law offices were all up and down these two streets. Well, now if you go to Nashville, they're all high rise apartment buildings and condos. I mean, they're just scaring all the big stuff out of Nashville.

Harry Duran [00:33:42]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:33:43]: So I saw that coming, and my work was starting to slow down. And, you know, we'd only go in the studio to record the big stuff. Like, you know, if you go in with Travis Tritt and you record all of the basic tracks, which is the drums and all the initial musical instruments. But then we would go to the producer's home studio and we would record the vocals, and we'd spend hours there. We'd spend so many more hours at their home studio than we ever did at the big studio.

Harry Duran [00:34:08]: Okay.

Jay Franze [00:34:09]: Now, I was lucky. I was getting paid the same on either one of those.

Harry Duran [00:34:12]: Okay.

Jay Franze [00:34:13]: But you could see the shift going towards the home. And I knew that if I stayed in the industry the way it was, I was probably going to be making less and less money each year. And I had to find a way to pivot with it or I wouldn't have money. And at that time, I had just gotten married. My wife and I get married, and we wanted to have a family. And the hours that you put into recording records and working all night and setting things up and doing all this stuff didn't seem like it was the right path to be on anymore. So I was in the studio and I made a very unconventional transition because I was in the studio. And I had earlier in life when I was trying to make it in the Music business, I had to find ways of making money. So I used to drive a limousine, and I would do that just because my. A friend of the family, he was a limo driver, and he had this big white limousine, and he needed somebody to pick people up at the airport one day. And he just said, can you drive a limo? I'm like, no. And he's like, yes, you can. You drive a car, right? And I'm like, yeah. He goes, it's just longer. He goes, come on, get in. We'll drive around the block. So I get in and he goes, just stop. Slower. Just realize there's a lot more weight. It's just gonna take you a little longer to slow down. You gotta make it nice and smooth. Then we get to a turn and he's like, take it wider. Just longer. You just gotta go a little wider. I said, okay. And we just literally went right around the block and right back. He goes, oh, that was perfect. I said, oh, great. He goes, all right, take these keys and go down to the airport, pick these people up and take them over to this hotel. And I'm like, what? So me again, being young and dumb, I did it. And those people tipped me 200 for a 10 minute drive.

Harry Duran [00:36:04]: Wow.

Jay Franze [00:36:04]: So I was like, yeah, this is. I'm in. So I did that during the first several years of my career in music. It takes a long time to break in.

Harry Duran [00:36:13]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:36:14]: But that was my steady source of income until I was able to break in. And by the time I got to Nashville and was teaching at the college and stuff, I didn't need to do that anymore. But when I was in the studio with these big artists, somebody was talking about how they needed transportation set up for their tour. And I was like, oh. Thinking to myself, I know how to do that. And they're like, who should we use? Who can we do? And I just chimed in and said, you know what? I said, if you want, I said, I can handle that for you. And at this point, they knew who I was because I've been working in the studio the whole time.

Harry Duran [00:36:47]: Sure, sure.

Jay Franze [00:36:48]: And they trusted me. Probably shouldn't have, but they didn't. So I just. And they said, yeah, sure, great. So I just reached out to the local companies and just trying to find out who was handling it. And I arranged it and just like producing a record, I handled the, you know, administrative side of it, got him a bus, got them hooked up with everything, and got a driver out there on the road. And they did it. And so they were, like, thrilled. Thank You. And then the transportation company's like, wow, man, thanks for the referral. That was a really big deal. And then the transportation company says, would you consider doing that for us? I was like, yeah. Oh, absolutely. So I transitioned to the transportation company, and now I'm working with all the same artists that I was recording, but now I'm setting up their tour buses and getting them on the road and transferring back and forth to award shows. And it was awesome. I mean, I had a blast doing it. All the people. I would pick up the same people, and they're like, didn't we just see you in the studio? Yeah, you know, guys gotta eat. So we'd drive them to the award shows, and that was a blast. And then one day, out of the blue, when you're driving the celebrities in Nashville and stuff, you have to have a license, a livery license and all this stuff. But then they will only allow certain drivers to drive the celebrities. And I got the credential I needed and the connections to do that, and I met a few, and I've got a really stupid story if you want to hear it later. But. So I was doing all this stuff, and the bend. Iron Maiden came into Nashville, and they said, look, we need a driver. And I said, great. Can do that. They said, but we need one that's also certified to do security so we can do a transfer. So I was the only person that had both licenses because I had to get the licenses so I could train the drivers so they could go do the work.

Harry Duran [00:38:37]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:38:38]: Nobody else had the security credential. So I went out, got the. It was one of those Mercedes Sprinters, I believe.

Harry Duran [00:38:46]: Oh, yeah. Spinner van.

Jay Franze [00:38:48]: And I went to the hotel. And you should have seen it wasn't like the Nashville artists. I mean, the Nashville artists, you could. They could be walking down the street. People would just wave at them and say hello. But Iron Maiden had a crowd outside of the hotel, I'm sure, so. And I look like I'm a delivery truck. So I pull around back, and they sneak out the back door, and they get in the van. They're like, oh, that was clever. So they get in the car, and they're happy. In Nashville, you know, you see a bunch of people standing outside the arena waiting for autographs, waiting to catch a photo or a glimpse of somebody.

Harry Duran [00:39:22]: Sure.

Jay Franze [00:39:22]: But what they don't realize in Nashville, two blocks from the arena, is a tunnel that you enter and you drive underneath the ground into the. Underneath of the arena. So you're far. Nobody ever sees you. Pull in, of course. So I drove them down there, I escorted them to the stage, and all I did is just part the crowd while they walk up to the stage and stuff. And, I mean, I still have pictures on Instagram of that night showing me doing the stupid stuff, but it was fun. And I got to do all that stuff, but then I got to do others from there, which is where the stupid story comes in. I don't know if you want a stupid story.

Harry Duran [00:39:53]: Yeah, please do. We love stupid stories.

Jay Franze [00:39:56]: It was not my client. It was the band Rascal Flats, made up of three members. And I've had the opportunity to work with all three at one point in time, but one was my first time, and it was Joe Don Rooney, who's the guitar player for Rascal Flats, in my first time working with him. He's married to a ex Penthouse Playmate, and I'm driving a Suburban, and they're both sitting behind me. And he's on the right side, so I can see him in the. Through the mirror. And we're driving through Nashville on the way to the award show. He's going to the awards, and he makes a phone call. And of all people, he calls. He's calling his producer, which is Dan Huff, and he's saying, you know, hey, you know, winning this big award tonight, you're going to be there for us and all this stuff.

Harry Duran [00:40:45]: Sure.

Jay Franze [00:40:46]: And Dan must have said, no, he can't make it. So you could see his face just drop. And you could see he was physically bothered by this. And he goes, but, man, you were there for Keith Urban last year, and I was really hoping you'd be there for me this year. And he said, sir, I guess, look, I'm sorry, I can't make it. I'm not gonna be able to make it there tonight. So Joe. Joe, Don hangs up the phone, and he's, you know, you could see he's physically just not happy holding it in, but he's not happy. And at the company, we would put these iPads on the back of the headrest so they can, you know, if somebody goes to dinner, they can pull up the menu or whatever they're doing.

Harry Duran [00:41:25]: Yeah, yeah.

Jay Franze [00:41:26]: So he's just frustrated. Clicks on the iPad, and there's a picture of him on the iPad just playing the guitar, just, you know. And he looks at me, goes, jay, this isn't your car, is it? I'm like, no, sir, it's not. He goes, it's Jason's car, isn't it? Yes, sir. I said, why is that was something wrong? He goes, no, he's just got my picture on the iPad. I said, oh. I said, you don't like that, do you? He goes, no. He goes, you wouldn't do that now, would you? I said, no, Surface. My card be Keith Urban. And I bit my tongue because I was like, oh, right. As the words came out of my mouth, I'm thinking myself, you are a Yankee dumbass. Because I said that as a wise ass. And he lit up red like a Christmas tree. And he. You could see he was about to blow. And his wife looked over at him and laughed. And finally his wife laughing cracked them. And he goes, you're right, you're right. And then he just started talking to me, asking me about what my favorite band was and stuff. And we became friendly and we had a lot of good interactions after that. I mean, a lot of good interactions. He's taking me to a lot of events and fun stuff, but that was my first night meeting him, and I came this close to blowing it.

Harry Duran [00:42:39]: Sometimes you have to just be yourself and let the cards fall where they may.

Jay Franze [00:42:43]: Yeah, well.

Harry Duran [00:42:45]: So how did the podcasting start?

Jay Franze [00:42:48]: The podcasting, when I was a teacher, to me, I thought I was going to go in there and I was going to mold young minds again. You know, the stupid things. You don't know what you don't know. So whenever you start a new venture, you think it's going to go one way and you quickly realize it's not going to go the way you think it's going to go. So I was teaching and I learned real quick, you know, these students don't care about me. They don't care. All they want to do is work in big studios or talk to people who have got these major credentials.

Harry Duran [00:43:15]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:43:15]: So luckily at this point, I had a few credentials, but not what they were looking for. But one student really encouraged me because there's this software called Pro Tools, which is the industry standard software that everybody uses to record records. And it's just a digital audio workstation which even podcasters use to edit their shows and stuff.

Harry Duran [00:43:36]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:43:36]: But I had a three ring binder that was huge. And it was just full of all my notes from out the years. And he kept asking me if he could borrow my notes. And he goes, man. And he goes, this could be a book. And I was like, yeah. So I pitched it and turned it into a book. So nobody wanted to publish this book. Nobody. So I just published it myself and I put it in the library at the school. But the School wouldn't use it as one of their textbooks or anything. They wouldn't even give it out for free to the students. So it just sat in the library. But another school in Canada, of all places, found the book and asked if they could use it as a textbook. So I said, absolutely. So they started using it, and then another college, then another college, and all of my students were buying it directly from me. And I was like, man, this is awesome. Now all of a sudden, I'm getting respect from the students just because I turned my notes into a book, so now it's in a book form. And then the publishing company comes to me and says, hey, you know, let's go ahead and make a deal. And I said, no, not at this point. It's done. It's already out. I'm already making money. Why?

Harry Duran [00:44:39]: You did the hard work already?

Jay Franze [00:44:41]: I just compared it to the artists who are putting records together. The record label is nothing but a bank. As an artist, I need you to pay for the product, and that's why you get a percentage of the money.

Harry Duran [00:44:52]: Sure.

Jay Franze [00:44:53]: The publishing companies, at this point, it's over. I've already done the hard work, so that's how I got the respect of the students. But the other stuff came after that. The things I did. I don't even remember where we're going. What was the question?

Harry Duran [00:45:07]: The podcast.

Jay Franze [00:45:08]: I get carried away.

Harry Duran [00:45:09]: The podcast.

Jay Franze [00:45:10]: Oh, the pod. Thank you. So as time went on, people would ask me, you know, questions in the hallway in between classes, and I found out that they cared more about the stories and the questions in between the classes than they cared about the actual classwork. What was it like working with this person? What did you do? And I'm thinking, you know, they're gonna ask me, how did you do this? How did you do that? No, what was this person like? What was this person like? You know, tell me the story about 50 Cent in the studio. What was he doing? Was he smoking dope? You know, those type of questions. They didn't care about what processor you used or what gear.

Harry Duran [00:45:43]: Trying to feel like they're in the room.

Jay Franze [00:45:45]: Right?

Harry Duran [00:45:45]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:45:46]: So I was like, okay, so they care more about that now. This is long before podcasting was podcasting. This was 2003. And so what I started to do is bring the people who worked on the projects. I brought them into the school, and I would sit on a stage, and I would interview them in front of the students.

Harry Duran [00:46:07]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:46:08]: And we would record that. And we were just putting them on a hard drive for students to take. So it was kind of a makeshift podcast. And then we just kept doing it. And then people started asking me to produce that for them. So they started wanting to produce podcasts rather than doing records. And then I just started saying, you know what? People seem to care more about the stories. So I started asking all my friends, hey, if I put a show together, would you come on and talk to me? And they're like, yeah, sure.

Harry Duran [00:46:36]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:46:37]: Nobody thought I would do it, but I did it. So I put the show together and I just started asking my friends to come on the show. And that's taken a, you know, evolution of its own.

Harry Duran [00:46:47]: Sure.

Jay Franze [00:46:48]: But I brought them on the show and they're telling stories and we had no idea what we were doing. And, you know, it was just a way to start. And immediately the director of the college, when I became the teacher, the director of education had moved on to a different school or something.

Harry Duran [00:47:06]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:47:06]: And they promoted me to be the director of education.

Harry Duran [00:47:09]: Okay.

Jay Franze [00:47:10]: And I became very friendly with the director of the school, who's still to this day, one of my best friends.

Harry Duran [00:47:15]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:47:15]: And he had his own path, he traveled, but he ended up in Las Vegas and he was working for MGM Studios and doing some work there. And when I did my first interview, he listened to it, probably out of a courtesy or whatever, but he didn't tell me. He just listened to it. And he called me up. He said, look, I see what you're trying to do here. He says, but it's not good. I said, no, thanks. He goes, why don't you let me produce it for you? I'm like, tell me what you have in mind. He says. He goes, at work, he goes, I have a TV studio. He goes, why don't you come here? We'll film it and put it out on the cable access channel.

Harry Duran [00:47:55]: Wow.

Jay Franze [00:47:55]: So I was like, okay. So at the time, I was living in California, so it was a seven hour drive to Vegas. So I said, I'll do that once a month. We'll film four shows and release them weekly.

Harry Duran [00:48:05]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:48:06]: Well, all that crashed and burned, but we still want to do it. So what he did is he says, you know, there's this stuff where we can stream live on the Internet. And I'm like, what do you mean, stream live on there? And he goes, it'd be just like a cable access show, but it'll go to the Internet instead of the tv.

Harry Duran [00:48:23]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:48:24]: So I'm like, all right, let's try it. And he used all his fancy gear and stuff and Put this together. And then when he ended up leaving mgm, so he didn't have the fancy gear anymore, so he started using the software. I mean, we used anything from Microsoft Teams, Google Meets, to Zoom. And then we started using things like we use Streamyard now. We used all the ones in between, but VMIX was the professional one that he was using at his new company. So we reasoned that for a while, we reasoned that in conjunction with Streamyard. I mean, with Restream, we've done everything, but that's how the show started. And it was originally called Frenzy and Friends, which is just me talking with my friends. And then we were just talking to people in the music industry. It was just fun stories.

Harry Duran [00:49:12]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:49:12]: But then they wanted to learn stuff, so, like, okay, so now there's an educational point to it.

Harry Duran [00:49:17]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:49:18]: And it grew and it grew and it grew, and people were liking it. And I'm like, this isn't what I signed up for. So I decided, you know, I'm done. I've had enough. I want to just go back to what I was doing.

Harry Duran [00:49:31]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:49:31]: So I rebranded, went to the Jay Franzi show, which is what it is now, and I'm back to just interviewing my friends and telling stories and nice having fun. So I think that's really how it turned out to get to where it is today.

Harry Duran [00:49:45]: How many episodes?

Jay Franze [00:49:47]: We just did episode 100 with a rebrand. It was okay. Probably 500 or something before that.

Harry Duran [00:49:55]: Oh, wow. How have you grown as a host since then?

Jay Franze [00:50:00]: Well, I like to think I've learned a few things because at the beginning, it was horrible. At the beginning, it was just me saying, oh, so tell me about yourself now. There's so many different little nuances and things I've done. Way I ask questions, way, you know, sit back, you know, today's the most I've talked probably in the past six months. But, no, I've learned little tweaks and specifically the type of questions I like to ask. And I take control of the way I want the interview to go now versus letting the interview just unfold.

Harry Duran [00:50:34]: Sure, sure.

Jay Franze [00:50:35]: I put something in my mind ahead of time. I do enough research that I know about the guests, but leave it enough that I'm still curious.

Harry Duran [00:50:44]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:50:44]: I try to start every show off with a question that they're not expecting. Especially when I get these people, these artists that come on that have been interviewed 500 times before. Of course, the music industry, they're interviewed all the time.

Harry Duran [00:50:59]: Sure.

Jay Franze [00:51:00]: A lot of times they're interviewed 20 times before my show, right? Same day.

Harry Duran [00:51:04]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:51:05]: So I want to ask something nobody else has asked.

Harry Duran [00:51:08]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:51:08]: So I do a little bit of research, and I find something, and then I go into it, and that's my first question. And usually they tilt their head like a dog, huh. And they're caught by surprise.

Harry Duran [00:51:22]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:51:23]: And now all of a sudden, their guard is let down and they intimate story and.

Harry Duran [00:51:28]: Sure, sure.

Jay Franze [00:51:29]: Then we just spend the time laughing and joking and getting them to tell stories. I don't know if you heard of a band called McBride in the Ride. No, they were a big country band now, but they were big in the 90s.

Harry Duran [00:51:40]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:51:41]: And they came on the show and they were answering the questions. They got on there, it was three of them. Three different little windows popped up on the screen. And they're looking at me like, all right, let's get this over with.

Harry Duran [00:51:52]: Sure.

Jay Franze [00:51:52]: You know, they didn't say that, but that's how I felt. And they're looking at me like that. So I go down the rundown, I tell them who the audience is, what to expect, that type of stuff. And I ask an out of the box question, which they're like, okay, he did some homework. They're answering the questions. But then I had reached out to somebody in my research. I found out who they were and who their connections were. So I reached out to the producer I used to work with. I said, you know anything about this band? And he said, oh, yeah, because I'm good friends with them. I said, great, tell me something that nobody knows. That. And he told me this. He goes, just ask about this mushroom. And I was like, I have no idea. I said, what's that gonna be, buddy? Because I'm not telling you.

Harry Duran [00:52:34]: That's.

Jay Franze [00:52:35]: I'm like, all right. So I'm sitting there and I'm waiting for a moment, and it comes around to the guy that I'm supposed to address, this McBride. I mean, it's the main guy. So I said, he looks at me. I said, tell me what's the deal with this mushroom? And he just freezes and looks at me, goes, who do you know? And he goes, you've got to know something. He just started cracking up. And he tells me this ridiculous story about how he got in a motorcycle wreck and ended up in the hospital. And when the nurse went to put in the catheter, his wee wee shrunk up like a little mushroom. And he was more concerned with the impression he was giving the nurse. And his wife's like, that nurse doesn't care. Two bits about your wee wee right now.

Harry Duran [00:53:22]: That's hilarious.

Jay Franze [00:53:22]: And so he's telling me all about this story, but then that opened up the floodgates, and then he's like, oh, you should have seen this prank we pulled on him. We was in the shower, we threw a bucket of ice over him. He came running out of the shower after us and didn't even realize he ran out of the hotel room. And we're running down the hotel and his families, and he's going past all these families butt naked and they just start telling all these stories. But I don't think any of that would have happened in the early days. Yeah, in the early days, if, you know, I would have been like, in. So where did you record your record? You know, it would have been horrible.

Harry Duran [00:53:55]: Is there anyone you follow or listen to that inspires you in terms of, like, how they handle interviews?

Jay Franze [00:54:00]: Yes, yes. There's a handful of people I follow different. You know, as you're aware, being a podcaster, talking about podcasting.

Harry Duran [00:54:08]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:54:08]: That there's those shows that I listen to and, you know, I've talked to a few of those people. I know you had Dave Jackson recently on your show.

Harry Duran [00:54:15]: Yeah, I love Dave.

Jay Franze [00:54:16]: He was on my show once before and great guy came on.

Harry Duran [00:54:19]: He loves. He plays a new guitar as well.

Jay Franze [00:54:22]: So I brought him on to talk about his book and we talked about music a lot.

Harry Duran [00:54:25]: Yep.

Jay Franze [00:54:26]: So good episode.

Harry Duran [00:54:27]: Great. Yeah.

Jay Franze [00:54:28]: But his co host, Jim Collison. I like talking to Jim. I like listening to Jim. Their advice together is funny when they do shows together, but as far as people I look up to, you know, you got the obvious right. You get Tim Ferriss and Jordan Harbinger.

Harry Duran [00:54:42]: Yep.

Jay Franze [00:54:43]: Both amazing. But I treat it the same way I treat when I was trying to be a music producer and I was looking at other producers for inspiration and people, you know, you want to be like. And I had a student ask me once, how do you know when you've made it? Or how do you know when you're ready? Because you got to go from working for somebody to working for yourself at some point.

Harry Duran [00:55:03]: Sure, sure.

Jay Franze [00:55:04]: And I said, that moment comes when you can look at the person you're working for, see what they're doing, anticipate the next move, and think, I would have done it differently. So that's the approach I take to listening to other people like Tim Ferriss or Jordan Harbinger or any of the others. And I look at their shows and I think, man, I really like that. But, oh, I would have rather have Done it this way here, man. The way they transition into this. Or like Tim Ferriss, I think, is an amazing guy, very smart, very talented, does a very good show. And I like to think that my show is like a format like that, but it refers to music industry instead of deconstructing the mind. And Jordan Harbinger, I think, takes a different approach, and he's got a, you know, a few more verticals he does with his three different formats of a show. So I look at those things and I think, well, I like that, but I don't know if I would have done it this way.

Harry Duran [00:56:02]: Mm.

Jay Franze [00:56:03]: So I like to listen to things like that. I listen to your show. I listen to it every week.

Harry Duran [00:56:07]: I appreciate that.

Jay Franze [00:56:08]: So I like the story aspect. There's a lot of things, you know, it's very. It's a much more relaxed format. So I like conversational shows that don't have a structured list of questions. I think you on your show, what makes you different is it's a very relaxed format. There is no clear path. You're just. It appears to me as if you're just trying to get the journey of the host that you're talking to, and you're trying to see if there's any gems within it. But you have a way of asking questions or navigating a conversation and then sitting back and listening. So you don't step on people, which is probably why I'm rambling right now. But you have a way of letting things go on so you get that little extra bit out of somebody that they tell a story that they probably wouldn't have told if you asked another question.

Harry Duran [00:56:56]: For sure, for sure.

Jay Franze [00:56:57]: I like that about your show. Jason Sercone, good friend of mine. I don't know if you're familiar with Jason, but he hosts a show called let's Blow this Up, which is a podcast about podcasting, where it's more conversation. Talks about podcast and stuff. But his voice is just radio ready, and he's got a very, very good way of presenting material. And he does solo episodes and interviews. But the interviews are conversations. They're fun to listen to. I don't think. I don't think anybody just wants to listen to somebody ask the series of questions. No, it's the conversation. It's like your show. I learned about your vertical farming. I never would have thought I would listen here about vertical farming. It's like, what the hell are we talking about? I didn't even know what vertical farming was, but I listened to it. I'm like, I want to know more about that. It's like, you know, how's that work? So, yeah, it's things like that.

Harry Duran [00:57:55]: So interesting because I got into that because I was. We own a production agency, so we knew how to produce the shows. And I just cut my teeth on long form interviews with this show. And so I didn't feel any trepidation because people are like, you're going to speak to CEOs about an industry that you don't know much about. And I'm like, yeah, just because I'm just talking to them. And a lot of times they're more nervous than me because they hear that, you know, we do pretty good production and we clean up the shows and just like, oh, everyone sounds so polished on your show. And I'm just like, you have no, that's part of the magic we do. But so a couple of. I've really enjoyed this conversation, by the way.

Jay Franze [00:58:26]: Thank you.

Harry Duran [00:58:27]: One of my favorites in a long time. Thank you so much. You're a fantastic storyteller. A couple of questions we usually wrap up with. What's something you've changed your mind about recently?

Jay Franze [00:58:37]: I would probably say I'll keep it related to the industry and the show. I think I've changed my way of thinking that other people are always right. You know, when I started my show, I started it for a reason. I was having fun talking to my friends and telling stories. And it was just stories from backstage of shows. And people tried to convince me it should be done another way and there should be an educational format or component to it. It was fun, but it wasn't what I signed up for. And even now I do these interviews. And I always thought of like, you grew up in New York. Everybody wanted to be Howard Stern. Everybody wanted, you know, Bob and Tom in the morning or those type of shows. Those are more variety shows and you had different segments that would break things up. You know, wasn't just a show. So I'd like talking about different things during the interview. You know, it's like, don't just tell me. I don't want to just hear how you did something. I mean, I want to hear those things, but I want to hear the stories of what happened on the tour bus or I want to hear for sure, you guys didn't have a budget. How'd you market your album? Tell me that part of it. You know, I'm interested in all of the pieces, not just the glamorous pieces. So now I try to incorporate those things into the show. Now, I don't want those to take over, but I do try to incorporate them.

Harry Duran [01:00:01]: It's just a function of being curious and being a good listener and just pulling threads. And that's kind of something that I've learned over the years and just hopefully something that I continue to get better on. But it's just paying attention to what people are saying. And that's why I did video from day one. I was using, like, Skype with call recorder or something like that. And it wasn't recording. Recording the video, but I could see them. I said, I need that body language. And the inspiration for the show came from inside the actor studio. And I was like. Because I studied acting for a couple years, and I was fascinated by that show because I was like, wait, we're getting to hear this actor speak for, like, an hour. I'm like, and it's not about. And it's. We're not seeing them act. We're seeing them actually talk like a human being. And I was like, okay, let's get behind the mic of these podcasters. And a lot of times, the podcast is just the entryway into the conversation. And the other added bonus is that mostly they all have good gear, too. So that helps a lot.

Jay Franze [01:00:50]: You mentioned that, too. You ever listen to the Adam Carolla show?

Harry Duran [01:00:54]: Everyone.

Jay Franze [01:00:56]: He had the girl on there that read the news. Her name was Gina Grad, and she's moved on to a different radio show now. But I had her on the show, and we talked one night, and, you know, everybody asked her, what's it like working with Adam? What's it like doing this? And she gets the same questions all the time.

Harry Duran [01:01:12]: Sure.

Jay Franze [01:01:13]: And I asked her, you know, did she ever feel pressured into being the person who did the news? Because it seemed like when you have that group dynamic, it was always the girl who got stuck reading the news, and she just lit up like a Christmas tree and went off. And, I mean, so I was like, okay, there you go. So it's little things like that make my night.

Harry Duran [01:01:35]: How long do your episodes run?

Jay Franze [01:01:37]: They're supposed to be an hour.

Harry Duran [01:01:39]: Okay.

Jay Franze [01:01:39]: Might go to an hour and a half. Yeah, I always try. I do edit them. They stream live.

Harry Duran [01:01:43]: Okay.

Jay Franze [01:01:43]: We still, to this day, stream live. I don't know why I do that to myself, but I enjoy streaming live. I enjoy seeing the comments. I enjoy the fact that we can't retake something that's fun, you know, and we do it that way. But then I do edit it for the audio release. I go through, and I Clean it up. I make sure everything's balanced. I make sure that the guests vocal and my vocal are at the same level. I make sure that the intro is tight. Sure, I take out any glitches that may have happened from the Internet. You know, I might take out a question that didn't go anywhere. You know, something like that.

Harry Duran [01:02:16]: When you're streaming live, are you watching the chat? Is that distracting?

Jay Franze [01:02:21]: I've gotten used to it, okay. At first it was massively distracting, but we had multiple people coming on the show. Somebody was always referencing the chat. I'm like, oh, dear God, where is it? But now I'm getting used to it. So I can see the chat and matter of fact, I have a stream deck over here to my right. I'm sitting there pointing. You can see it, but I have a stream deck. And I've got it programmed to all the shortcuts for streamyard, which includes not only switching screens and the different cameras and stuff, but it also includes the chat and stuff. So I can pull up the chat, I can see what's going on, I can respond to it. But that's taken a lot to be able to do that and still pay attention to the guest. Like, we're talking right now. We've got both of us on the screen. That's perfect. We can just talk. But think about it. If you had to manually solo me when I'm talking, put yourself back, ask a question. That stuff became a lot, so I only do it during special occasions now.

Harry Duran [01:03:22]: Any dream guest you're looking to get on the show?

Jay Franze [01:03:25]: Yeah. You know, I grew up listening to a lot of rock music, and I've worked in the country industry for years. So I'd like to get a few more rock guests on the show. Yeah, I've had a few good ones. I had the founder and lead singer of the band the Romantics came on. What I like about you.

Harry Duran [01:03:43]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jay Franze [01:03:44]: That was a good night. He was a good guy. But I would like to get some of the ones I grew up with. You know, some of the older hair band type people. You know, Jeff Tate from Queensrych or, you know, Steve Perry from Journey or something like that.

Harry Duran [01:03:58]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [01:03:59]: Or even some of the more modern ones. I would love to have Lizzie Hill from Hailstorm.

Harry Duran [01:04:04]: Okay.

Jay Franze [01:04:05]: That would be great. I've met her a couple times. She's super nice. Took pictures with my family, but I've never had her on the show. I've had Five Finger Death Punch is one of my favorite bands. It's a hard Rock band.

Harry Duran [01:04:17]: Yeah.

Jay Franze [01:04:17]: I had one of the members of their team on the show, but I've never had one of the. Or the singer or the band members on the show.

Harry Duran [01:04:24]: Well, definitely. Well, it's out in the ether now once this gets published. So there you go. So, last question. What is the most misunderstood thing about you?

Jay Franze [01:04:33]: That one is easy, sir. I am not typically a speaker, so I don't typically talk. So you've done a very good job tonight by getting me to tell stories. I sit back and I listen. Even in my personal life, when I go places with my family, when we go out to parties, I have a fairly low voice compared to most, and it's hard to talk over music or. So when there's any sort of crowd or music, I can't talk. So I just sit there and listen. At work, I really spend a lot of time listening to people to try to, like you said, read body language, try to get a feel for what's going on. And I don't smile. I don't know how to smile. You cannot just smile and show my teeth. So people think I'm mad all the time. Yeah, they think I'm mad or serious. Why are you so serious?

Harry Duran [01:05:23]: Why is it serious, bro?

Jay Franze [01:05:24]: But I'm not. I'm constantly. I've got a very dry sense of humor, and I'm constantly joking, but people think I'm serious to the point where sometimes I have to say, do you really? That's a joke. Do you really think I was? Let's say that, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think that's probably the most misunderstood thing.

Harry Duran [01:05:41]: Well, I'm so glad we got this coordinated and really enjoyed. These are the types of conversations that really light me up. I tell people this all the time. It's so fun to look at the calendar and see something coming up that you're excited for. And, you know, I think I've hopefully have gotten to the point where I'm just booking folks on the show that I want to speak with, that I want to have a conversation with and, you know, keep me engaged and who are engaging as well. You know, I do try to take a backseat when someone is such a good storyteller as you are. And so I really appreciate you sharing some gems there because there's some fun stuff. I don't know if it's stuff that you've shared in a while, but it was really. I really appreciate.

Jay Franze [01:06:16]: You want exclusives. There's a couple exclusives in there. I've never told anybody the story about Rascal Flats or anything.

Harry Duran [01:06:24]: Well, we'll get people to jfransshow.com F R A N Z E Anywhere else you want to send folks to connect with you?

Jay Franze [01:06:30]: No, sir. If they want anything else, it's all right there.

Harry Duran [01:06:34]: All right. Thanks again so much. Really enjoyed this and looking forward to future conversations at some point.

Jay Franze [01:06:39]: Fantastic. Thank you very much for having me.