Dream Beard Teams Up with Dropout Kings for Powerful New Single “HIGH LIFE” – PipemanRadio Interview

0:04 Hey, you live onto censure. Wow for you your. Fuck. I don't want to be like this. I don't want to live like this. I don't want to die like this. This is the pipe Man here on the Avengers pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm very excited about our next guest for several reasons that we'll talk about. The main reason is this new single, High Life, And so what I want to know right off the bat, this is Dreambeard. You teamed up with Dropout Kings and it all started from a cigar.

0:58 Tell us that story. Wow, man, that's a powerful story. I didn't know we were going to start there. So I'm I'm this is pre me doing music. And I was hanging out with my buds in Memphis Mayfire on the ship Rock Cruise, and uh, they invited me out to hang out. I used to be a cinematographer for a long time and uh, and so I brought my camera and we're hanging out. I'm getting some video and uh, one of the off days where you're on the islands, they were the band kind of all split up with their wives, right, So I'm just kind of hanging out by myself and I'm in the pool, and I'm like seeing everyone with cigars right, and I'm like, man, I needed I need a fucking cigar, bro, And so I crawl the water and I'm just walking around aimlessly trying to find maybe some stand or whatever that sells cigars. I'm like, surely, you know, and I want buy all.

1:49 These like real dope kind of villas. And there's this guy on the deck of his villa and he's smoking a cigar. So I'm like, well, shit, maybe he knows where cigars are. And so I I kind of mosy over there and I'm like, hey, man, I'm like, where'd you get that cigar? And he's like, oh, He's like, dude, I brought this like from home. And I was like oh. I was like I've been looking to try to find a place to buy one. And he was like, well, He's like, do you want to just come smoke this with me? And I was like hell yeah, And so I just crawl up on his deck and we sit down and we start talking about life and love and passion and dreaming and I talked a lot about myself and he listened, and uh, he was so kind, and we kind of like finished the cigar and we wapped up and I was like, man, what's your name And he's like, He's like, my name's Adam, and I was like, dude, it's so nice to meet you. And I just walked away.

2:44 And I had no clue that they had played that day on the beach. I had no clue that he was a singer of Dropout Kings. And it wasn't until much later that he found me on Instagram and we connected put two and two together, and. I was like, what the hell you know? And we ended up becoming friends and I would come to his shows a lot, and we spent a lot of time together. Man, I love ad him. I think he's one of the most beautiful people I've ever met. Yeah, and I got to tell you that's what ship Rock's all about right there. Like, yeah, dude, you know I do media. I know I do media coverage at music festivals all over the US, UK, Europe, And for years they were trying to get me to do ship rock that I'm like, no, that's in my off season. I'm surfing in Costa Rica, Like I've already done like thirty festivals this year. And then finally one year I was convinced. I was like, fuck, what.

3:38 Was I think in saying know all these years that this was badass? And what you experience is exactly what would happen. Like, what's really cool about Shiprock too, is that the artists they feel comfortable enough to they don't even go to catering. They they'll eat out. With everybody else because nobody's fucking with them. It's the best way. But like it's like, you know, at festivals, even in the media area, it's like, sometimes are someone come there because all the media people will bombard them like it's a meet and greet. But on ship Rock, everybody's got such respect that it's so cool that the musicians have a chance to just chill.

4:22 You know. Yes, that's exactly what I saw too, man, And I didn't even think about it, but I met so I wasn't doing music on that ship and I met someone at the bar. His name is Matt, and we became really good friends, and he helped me build the structure of my first song, ever Wow ended up and that I ended up releasing. So both those things happened at Shiprock at the same time. So yeah, it was, like you said, it's a there's a real beautiful community in rock in general. But like you said, the walls come down in those situations and it's a lot of fun to be around. I love to I love to perform there one day, Man, that'd be sick. Well, we got to make that happen, and I'll tell you what to. Maddie is one of my favorite people in music. He's like the nicest, greatest human being, like ever.

5:08 Bro. It's I have to shout him out because we've known each other for maybe man eight plus years. Man, maybe even longer. But we met when I was a pastor and we just hit it off about mental health and we became really good friends. And he has been there through me walking away from being a pastor, and he's been there through my mental health issues. He's been there. Through some of the hardest times ever, me losing my first major business. And so what actually got me into music was him. And it was a moment on my birthday.

5:49 I was on tour with him in Orlando and he looked at me and he said, Hey, I want you to learn this song. You're gonna come up on stage with me tonight. And it was packed house, two thousand people and I learned the song and I think it was vices and uh and we we. I came up, man, and it was the first time I even heard my name, because only my friends called me dream Beard, and it was the first time. I heard my name on stage. He literally he's like he's like, he's like, guta dream Beard and I come out and I like scream. I have the video of it still because someone in the crowd video there and uh, yeah, man, that was that was what was the catalyst that caused me to want to do to be on stage, you know, And that's it.

6:31 So yeah, it was wild. And I love the whole path you've gone on anyway, because like I lived on the streets from fifteen on, you have a story too similar. Yeah, and look at where you've come from that, you know. It's like, yeah, I always find the people like you that have the most struggles in childhood are the ones that don't take anything as entitled or for great and they work their butt off and they create the life they want. Yeah. Man, no, man, I look back at my life and I definitely was a troubled team. I was kicked out of school for drugs, facing juvenile detention time, for well over twenty one years old, I was you know, really headed down a dark path man and grew up in the trailer park life, grew up in you know, family doing you.

7:27 Know, meth and all kinds of stuff. And I really do attribute that time of my life where there was this youth pastor that kind of took me under my wing during that dark time, and he gave me someone to look up to. And so even though I'm not like religious anymore, I am extremely thankful. His name's Trey. If he ever gets to see this, I would immensely say thank you for like pulling me out of hell man and giving me purpose and hope. And I think it changed who I was. To my core. And and yeah, like I said, I still have a lot of love for like belief and faith. It just looks a lot different now. Well, And I think that's cool too, because I think that's what happens when you get older and you start learning a lot of things, Like I've studied all different types of religions, philosophies and like a grab a little from here, grab a little from there, you know. And but the key is, you did something that I preach about all the time. Because I'm also a motivational speaker, and my thing is, I don't care what happened in your childhood. You can pull a role model from anywhere. Like, you know, everybody talks about one of the things that really annoys me, it's serial killers that get on and do interviews and they're like, yeah, the reason I did the heinous bullshit I did is because of my childhood.

8:50 And I call bullshit, man, because otherwise I'd be a serial killer for sure. Yeah. And it's how you look at things too, Like all the shit that happen in my life that people thought was absolutely insane when I became ad, I'm like, yeah, no, I didn't think that way. I just thought I was on some cool adventures. Man. Yes, you know, it's the viewpoint. It's picking a roll model, and even though even if the roll model picks you, you have to pick that role model. So like the fact that. Pastor took you under your wing, under his wing, that was something nobody else did for you, is the way I look at it. And then that's the whole thing.

9:32 I think that's how we could squash a lot of things that are happening in society today. You know, I think the role models are you know, kind of whacky nowadays. And sure, and people just needs somebody that you need, that one person that could change your life forever and can come from any place. Yeah, man, I completely agree. There's been so many pivotable pivotable I can't say that right now. You know, people that really shaped who I was. I mean, I had the fortune of sitting on the one of the boards on FedEx because of the business I was running at the time, and I think of, you know, some of those people that I met that completely changed the way I look at reality, And I think of, you know, I had a major podcast for four years, and I think about all those people, how that I got to talk to and how they shape my life, and and I think that's what we are, right, We are just a thing that inputs data that we're giving and then it shapes our reality.

10:37 It shapes our perception. And so there really is. No like true truth out there that I've found besides change. But what I do see is that it really is all perception based, and you can create your own reality that is happy, that is that is full of hope. You know, no matter what you believe. No doubt, one. I believe it's a choice. You know, we can't control what happens to us, but we can control how we look at it, you know. And so I also want to talk a second about you and your beard. Yeah, because listen, you see the whole thing. It is badass. And I say that because I laugh because Okay, So, first of all, I've had facial hair most all my adult life, but until I was turned fifty, I could not even grow a full beard like I had a goatee because.

11:27 I never grew anything here. And then when I start growing it, like I think about, hey, I want to grow it long like you got, it looks like such shit that I just trim it down again, I'm like, nope, I get. And when I look at people that have beards like you know, I'm like, man, how the hell do they do that? Because mine looks. Like shit no matter what I do when it's that long. But you made it a business of making your beard is so great. So like, uh, hats off to you, just I just had to give you kudos on your beard, and you're how you made it all happen. And again, taking something and turning it into something even bigger.

12:18 Man, the Beard. The Beard business was wild. And it's funny you bring it up because in the other room, my friend Mike just got here and I've never met him face to face, but he was always a fan of the Beard products, and he reached out to me about a year ago and he wanted to rebuild the brand and bring it back because it's been gone since COVID. And so this is the. First time on any kind of live thing that I've ever said it, but it is actually coming back out, and it's coming back out full force. There's a crazy team behind it now. And uh, and so I'm going to just be kind of helping and assisting. I don't really have the time to really be that person anymore. Mike's gonna take it over, and uh, but I'm down to like help and assist in any way. But that really changed my life because I came out of church and I was still kind of working in church when I started that brand. But it's it's what kind of shaped my whole perception reality because I got out of a confirmation bubble of like just being around the same type of people that like believed the same type of things, and I started, you know, going all over the country and the world, you know, selling this product, and it exposed me to a lot of different people. And so I really am so passionate about what that brand did for me, and it it changed my life, man.

13:30 I mean we started it with forty six dollars. And within three months, Yeah, within three months, we were in thirty countries. We ended up selling in one hundred and eighty six countries. I became friends with people like Jim ru from slipknot because of it, and met a lot of really famous people because of it. And it grew my. Connections and friendships, and we built something that was so crazy that even in Singapore, I was I was contacted by their law enforcement because people were spray painting my logo on the walls that were like eight foot tall. And I have pictures of it still to this day. And so I can't believe what that actually did in my life. That you could just have a dream, and that's why I called a dream beard is I just had a dream, you know, and I was.

14:16 Like, man, like, maybe this could be real. And I took the smallest thing, you know, faith of a mustard seed, Like I had forty six dollars and I was living with my father in law, you know, and I sat on a dining room table and I created something with faith and it blew up. And I feel like my life, my life has always been like that. I feel like anything I've ever wanted to do, I just see it, believe it, and then manifest it by walking it out and making the best decision possible in that moment, which leads to the best possible outcome. And it's so true everything you're saying, because I think everything has to do with attitude, outlook, perseverance, persistence, and you know, you can choose how you look at things and what you create from it, and you are the epitome of that. And then here we have, you know, the tragedy of Adam, and then you reached out to black Cat Bill and here we are with the song high Life with you teamed up with Dropout Kings. And I gotta tell you, I have this tendency that I'll listen to music before the interview to get pumped up for the interview. Yeah, And I basically before this interview, I was doing some stuff in the other part of the studio and I just had this song playing on repeat, and so I like listen to it like six times because it is a banger for sure.

15:44 That's awesome, man, thank you. Yeah, man, I am just so enthralled by the song. I think it has so many meanings for me personally. I won't speak for like the band right like everyone probably has. Again, we talked a lot about perception. Everyone has their own kind of view of what it means to them personally. But yeah, like through at him, I met the band, and I'll never forget black Hat Bill. My interaction with him. Finally, we we got to connect backstage one time for like a long time, you know, and it was super sick because we spent like an hour and him showing me his like book that he was making. That was like it was insane, and now it's actually out, it's crazy.

16:26 And so we spent like an hour or. So together and we're talking and we just built this friendship and connected later on and dust Cam by the way, uh, he he produced the song. So it's very important that you can see him. He's actually he's actually gonna mix. Right here by us right now. I hope that's okay, Hey man, we gotta do. We were still doing our ship. I love that that's the way it should be. Man. Yeah, and uh and so so yeah, Man, we we hit it off hardcore, became friends on Instagram. And then when when I was building this song, this song was more of a personal song. And to be clear about that, like, it wasn't anything that I was trying to like build some song that I.

17:08 Thought Dropout Kings would be a part of. It was I was going through a lot and I needed a song that was like an outcry about breaking the cycle of my own life and like things that I was going through deeply personally. And but when the song had kind of reached this point, I looked at Cam and Cam had you know, produced a lot of Dropout Kings already, like Glitch Gang and and so you know, I felt like we had talked about it, and he kind of was like, man, this kind of makes sense. We should hit a black Cap Billo. This feels like a Dropout Kings song. And uh, and so he hit him up. We kind of got in a group chat, we started talking about it and we showed it to him and he was just like, man, hell yeah. And he literally. It was maybe like Cam like a few days later probably that he he sent the stems back, man, and when we dropped him in, I'll never forget, like cause you never know, you know, like when someone's gonna do something, especially if you're not there in the room.

18:02 Like if you're in the room. And you're watching it happen, it's a totally different experience because you you see it evolve, right, But to just be handed stamps and. You're like, man, I don't know what this is gonna sound like in the song, it was it was. It was literally we were like mind blown. We were like, holy shit, this song is like a song now, you know, like and uh and so yeah, man, we couldn't be happier. And it was really important for me to involve the band, and so we you know, in the music video, we I went all the way up to New York before their tour and we shot full band and really really incorporated as much as we could with them in it because it was such an honor. I'm such big fans and and so so yeah, man, I think it came together so so well, and it's been really well received.

18:43 I think it's you know, it's it's a it's a song that's. Not only fun, that has like a positive message in a weird way. And but I do love it and the and the fact is too is it is an honor because this is like the first track drop since Adam you know, passed on us. So like to me, that's a huge honor. But see, I do get the whole message from you, your message of the song, because I lived it, you know, And I think this could help a lot of people because you know, a lot of people had to go through what you went through, what I went through. What like I always think about, like I don't care what I went through, there's somebody out there that went through worse, you know.

19:30 And a lot of times it does have to do with the High Life for sure. Yeah, for sure. And you know, nothing good usually comes out at unless you do what you did and take it and turn it into something good and message that can help others. And that's why I think High Life represents. It's like, you know, I love what Black apt Bill says in the breakdown. He talks about generational versus like a mechanism of death and uh, and it's like, so this song could be about something that's currently happening in your life or things you struggle with, or it could literally be a generational curse that's following you, and you might be the first person in your family lineage to break it. And I think that's probably the overarching message, is like we all have some something that is weighing us down and it's time to break that off.

20:28 I also think it sends a message that with those generational curses, so many people they just think they're doomed to that, and it gives them hope now that they can break it and they can change it. Yes, I really hope that that's what this song is for people. I hope it's something that you can jam and maybe even if you don't have enough faith to break a cycle, maybe it is some sort of weird spiritual alchemy that you could just play this on repeat like you said, and you could jam it at the gem, you can jam it in the car are and maybe it begins. To melt away the cycles without you even trying. Yeah, no doubt, because the music, to me, specially metal, is like some of the best therapy you can ever have.

21:14 Get the energy out. No doubt. You know. I have so many different songs coming out with some of me singing more and stuff. But I'll never deny that like, being on stage and getting to scream is the. Most euphoric let out your. Bullshit moments, and it is extremely therapeutic when you get to do stuff like. That, no doubt. And for me on the other side, being in the pit while you're screaming, does it for me good? Like this, I had a really really I had a lot of bad deaths in the last few years, but one that really hit hard. And the next day I was covering a festival where Slayer was headlining, and it was just a couple of years ago, and I just went in that Slayer pit and I let that you want to take somebody for grief counseling, put them in a Slayer pit.

22:02 Yeah. I mean, dude, I grew up like like I said, and trailers listening to corn and if it wasn't for some of those breakdowns and some of those big moments and some of those big songs like Limbus, Guitt and all those great guys, damn, I mean I needed that therapy. So I hope that there's some young guy, you know, jumping in his trailer to break the cycle nice. You know, and it's helping him, you know, Like that's what it's all. About right, Well, I think that's what's great about you. You're not only a great artist, but a great human being that could be a role model to others. And I think that is also the most important thing about living the life you had to live, because I don't think you'd become.

22:46 A role model without that. Like even look at superheroes like you take somebody like Batman or Arrow, they're not they don't have superpowers, they're not meta humans, they're not aliens. They just had some really bad shit happened in their life. Yeah, you know, And so sure that's the way I viewed somebody like you. It is like you had some shit in your life that happened, and you turned it into something positive. And it's good. So that's what's most important. Is there anything else you want to share with the listeners We haven't covered yet about what you have coming up about high life or anything. Well, man, first is, thank you so much for the kind words, and like, you know, being a role model is what I was is, you know, for eight years of my life as a youth pastor and stuff. And I think that like this is like an opportunity now for me to get to step into that role again and be on a stage and have a new message.

23:43 Of hope and uh and so so thank you. I do hope I have the opportunity to be able to do things like that and engage with the public in a real and a real sense, you know. As far as the future, I've got some crazy things. I wish I could say crazy features. I've got songs that are so unreally on a different level. That I just am. I wish I could drop them yesterday. But things things take time, you know, and especially the features. And then but this new song we have coming out probably next I'm really excited about because it's it's definitely more like, uh, showcases my vocals. There is some screaming in it, but like you really hear me like sing and uh, I think I pull out my church vocals a little bit more in that song. And uh and so I'm kind of pretty excited to see, you know what what people think about it. But uh, yeah, we've got some crazy ones. Cam is really taking our sound to just a whole other level. I mean he you know, Chingo is what he goes by. Everybody knows him. He literally created snare bombs. He literally really shaped the metal industry in my in my humble opinion of sound instead to be working with him and developing a new sound based on that is pretty pretty just unreal, you know, and leaves me speechless.

25:10 I think it is key. People don't realize how important that is. Man like you took, you take, like a band like Metallica without bob Ra, you know. Where would you be? Where would you be? You know? And there's so many stories like that, you know, And uh so I'm glad you're one of them. And uh everybody's got to reach out to you on socials, on the. Web, check out all your stuff, by your. Merch because they can't they can't listen to my show, and listen by your merch. By the way, let's go. That's the only way musicians keep going nowadays because getting screwed everywhere else. So that's the one place where you can make it to the next gig and the next song.

25:58 And so you keep giving us great therapy and being a great role model and giving us great music. And thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipemin Thank you so much. This was a humbling experience and I was totally honored and I can't wait to do. More me too. Thank you for listening to the adventures of Pipemin. I'm w for Cui Regio