Drake Milligan talks to Everything Nash about life after 'AGT,' songwriting, new music, and more.
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Hey guys, it's Gail with Everything Nash
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back with Drake Milligan. Good to see
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you again.
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>> Good to see you.
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>> How is your CMA Fest?
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>> Uh, good. It's been busy.
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>> Yeah. Um, what I want to start with, I
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didn't plan on, but I saw you last night
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performing Storms of Life for Randy
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Travis with Randy Travis sitting a few
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feet away from you. Talk about that.
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>> It's pretty awesome. I waited until I
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got through the first verse and chorus
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to even try to look at at Randy cuz I
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knew I was just going to be like, you
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know. Um, but it it was it was special.
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What a special event. I mean, you know,
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I I think about my first introductions
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into country music and Randy is a huge
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huge part of that. And um, you know, all
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the hours that I've spent, you know,
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singing along to Randy, you know, on the
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radio, on CDs, and and uh, yeah, there's
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no doubt that my music would be far
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different without without his music and
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his voice. So, it's pretty special just
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to be invited uh, to be a part of that.
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was pretty awesome when you think about
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40 years since that debut records film's
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life.
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>> You weren't even born.
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>> I was not.
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>> That is just wild. And I love how he's
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still so revered by so many people. I
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mean, he's just such an icon in our
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industry. All right, let's talk about
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your music. Tumbleeed, the album is out.
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What a great album. Talk about it.
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>> Thank you. Yeah, this is a record I did
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with uh Trent Wilman. Produced it. Uh
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>> no big deal. He's phenomenal.
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>> Yeah, Trent's the best. And uh we had a
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lot of fun. It was um a lot of these
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songs, you know, over the last like few
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years since my debut record uh right off
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the heels of AGT um there were so many
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songs that didn't make it into the p
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that pile. So this is technically my
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sophomore project, right? Uh my
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sophomore album uh if you will and
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there's songs gosh there and over the
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last few years it's just kind of been
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crazy. Haven't really had time to catch
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my breath. we've been on the road. Um,
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in a lot of ways I felt like a tumble
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weed, you know, and uh, when we found
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the song Tumbleeed, I knew I wanted it
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to be the the the title of the record.
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Um, just because I in a lot of ways it's
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it's how I felt over the last few years.
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And and the song is really about kind of
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having that grounding too, you know,
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having like the the or the wind behind
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you. you know, there's you can kind of
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feel like you're being pushed aimlessly
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in all directions when you're doing this
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thing. But you just kind of know that
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there is a force there. There's a wind
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there. Um, and you know, for me, it's my
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fan base and and my family and my team
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um kind of being the kind of driving
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force behind it, pushing me in a certain
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direction, you know, not just like into
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the wind. So, um, yeah, there there's a
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lot of songs on here. There's songs that
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that I wrote like eight years ago when I
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first moved to town. Um, there's songs
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that I wrote just for this project.
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There's songs that I didn't write, um,
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that I just happened to find and and,
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uh, there's some, uh, you know, I got to
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explore some different kind of country
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sounds, some some different influences.
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Uh, there's songs that are inspired by
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the music of Marty Robbins on here.
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>> There's a song that's inspired by Roy
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Orbison on here. There's there's so many
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different things uh I feel like that
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I've gotten to dive into uh artistically
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on this record and and I'm I'm glad glad
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to have it out there
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>> and you are also really touring and I'm
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so glad I almost didn't even look up
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your press stuff because I know you um
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>> you're really big in the UK right now.
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Who knew? Who knew? It's big in the UK.
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Talk about that.
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>> It's crazy. Um yeah, we just did a meet
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and greet today here. There's so many
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fans uh that came into town for CMA Fest
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from the UK. Uh it's it's it's crazy
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what's happening over there. The the
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country fan base uh I found in Europe is
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is is kind of I guess it's kind of a
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small group but it's ever growing. I
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mean they you know I just did the uh CTC
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festival. Uh we're direct support for
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Brooks and Dun over there and I mean
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there's 17,000 people in the O2 Arena uh
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sing along to every word. Uh so it's
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pretty awesome. Uh, you know, it's it's
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cool that there's like they're very
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passionate fan base and they they're so
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proud to be country music fans and it's
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so cool for me to see as somebody who
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loves country music and kind of
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dedicated my life to country music. Um,
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seeing people be that uh excited about
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the genre and wanting to dive into the
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history and wanting to to find new
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artists and support new artists and
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that's what they're doing. They're
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they're amazing fans. So, uh, it's
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special. I don't, you know, I don't
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really know exactly why they've
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gravitated towards my music. We don't,
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we keep going back. We went for the
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first time, I think three or four years
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ago to CC Festival and we've been able
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to grow it and grow it and grow it since
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then. So, um, it's really special. Um,
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and and yeah, we're going back in in
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November. We'll be back in the UK doing
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a full headlining tour.
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>> I think it's Kip Moore that says that
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>> UK audience doesn't leave any like
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there's no fluff lyrics with UK
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audience. like they're they're into the
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lyrics like they and you're a great
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songwriter cuz you've had songs recorded
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by other artists. Ronnie Den, it's
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funny.
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>> Exactly.
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>> What an amazing opportunity for you.
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>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I love I I you know,
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I moved to town. I didn't expect to be a
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songwriter when I moved to town. I just
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kind of dipped a toe in songwriting and
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I thought I would find I would just be
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an artist that would cut outside songs.
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Um, but it became a a way for me to find
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my voice. And also, I just fell in love
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with the art of songwriting. And there's
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so many songs that I write that aren't I
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feel like mine. I I feel like I I I
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somebody else would do them far better.
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Uh, Ty Delk who's who I just got to meet
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today. Uh, just cut a song that I
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co-written and uh it's great because it
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was a song that I like was out of my
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range. I could I could not sing this
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song if I tried. Uh, but he's a great
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singer and was able to sing it and
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absolutely killed it. So, it's it's it's
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it's cool and it feels good. It makes
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you feel um very validated like somebody
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like Ronnie Dunn cuts a song of yours.
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Um it makes you feel like you're doing
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the right thing.
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>> Do you ever do the mind game with
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yourself of what would have happened if
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you hadn't tried out for AGT?
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>> Uh a little bit. A little bit. You know,
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my my thing with AGT, it was such a
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great opportunity to get in front of a
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big audience uh very very quickly and it
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allowed me kind of a little fan base all
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over the world uh kind of overnight. Um,
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but we've been able to build on that
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because it's kind of a spark. It ignites
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and then it can fade fast if it
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>> doesn't do the work for you.
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>> It doesn't do the work for you. So,
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we've been able to really grow and grow
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on that.
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>> Um, since then I think I would still
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probably be um trying this, but it it
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gave me such a great way to break
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through the ice and it's such a great I
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got to tell my story and have my, you
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know, play my music on there and have my
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band. Um, so it really allowed uh kind
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of not I wouldn't say overnight success,
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but a way to break through the ice and
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and and kind of give me a foundation to
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start building on.
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>> All right, last question. What's
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happening with you this year besides
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touring all over the world?
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>> Yeah, touring all over the world for
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sure. We're doing a big West Coast run
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this month. Uh we're going to Australia
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next month. Uh we're doing of course
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Europe in uh uh September and November.
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Uh, but I'm always I'm trying to work in
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between that and try to cut some new
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music and keep keep the ball rolling.
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>> Well, when you have new music, we'll
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talk again.
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>> All right, sounds good. Drake Milligan,
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>> thank you.
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