Devin Bronson (guitarist)

Episode 89 - Devin Bronson! Devin is a guitarist who has worked alongside some of the biggest names in music including Avril Lavigne, Demi Lovato, Deryck Whibley (Sum 41), and many more. I became a fan of his while listening to him play on Sebastian Bach’s last record. He told me he will be playing on the new Sebastian Bach record as well. Hear all about this plus the megastar he almost got to work with and much more!

00:00 - Intro
01:00 - Washington to California 
01:52 - Cheap Trick Fan 
04:40 - Aly & AJ
05:57 - Early Guitar Influences 
07:45 - First Time Playing On Stage 
08:30 - Local Bands 
09:55 - Kelly Osbourne 
13:55 - Avril Lavigne 
17:15 - Learning to Play the Mandolin 
19:15 - Memorable Show with Avril 
20:45 - Butch Walker 
23:05 - P!nk 
24:55 - Sebastian Bach & Duff 
28:45 - John 5 & Steve Stevens 
29:45 - NEW Sebastian Bach Record 
31:05 - Devin's Work on Bach's New Record
34:40 - Working With Big Stars 
35:45 - Auditioning for Rihanna
36:20 - Submitting For Prince 
37:58 - Production Library for Movie/TV
43:00 - Nicknames Evil D, D-Rock
43:43 - Advice for Aspiring Guitar Players 
44:53 - Underrated Guitar Player 
45:52 - Krewella & Rose'
49:35 - New Music 
52:15 -Music  Conspiracy Theories 
54:25 - BN Audio 
55:55 - Special Operators Transition Fund 
57:58 - Wrap Up 

Devin Bronson Website:
http://www.devinbronson.com

Devin Bronson Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/devin_j_bronson/

Special Operators Transition Fund
https://www.sotf.org

Chuck Shute Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/chuck_shute/

Transcript

Chuck Shute: 0:14

Shark suit podcast. Thanks for tuning in Devin Bronson, my guest today someone you may not know what you've definitely heard of the people. He's worked with Afro Levine. He was his guitar player for a long time. He's also worked with pink, Demi Lovato, Derek wibbly from some 41 and my personal favorite, Sebastian Bach from Skid Row, which is how I discovered him. He's clearly very talented. And he also he does music for TV and film. So you've heard of stuff on the hills, Californication, 22, Jump Street, tons more stuff. But he really hasn't done a lot of interviews that I've seen. So this is a good chance to get to know who he is. He's a super nice guy. very down to earth. Really fun to chat with. And I really enjoyed our conversation. And I hope you guys did get to check it out. Welcome Devin Bronson to the Czech shoe podcast. This is quite a treat. I am a fan for sure. You've got quite a resume. I didn't even know a lot of the other artists that you work with until I started doing my research for the show. But Sebastian Bach was the one that drew me to you.

Devin Bronson: 1:16

Nice. an hour. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Yeah. So

Chuck Shute: 1:20

now are you are you from Seattle as well? Are you at least born there? Right?

Devin Bronson: 1:24

I'm from Seattle. Yeah, I was born in burian. Outside of Seattle. That's where my family's from.

Chuck Shute: 1:29

Okay, now. So how long did you live there until you moved to California.

Devin Bronson: 1:33

My family moved when I was probably eight or nine years old. So I didn't have any real formative years there. But we'd go back every summer to visit the grandparents and family that still lived there.

Chuck Shute: 1:44

Okay, so mostly California is where you've grown up.

Devin Bronson: 1:47

Mostly California. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 1:48

Okay. So then your favorite band is cheap trick. How did you how did you get into Cheap Trick because you almost seem like too young to be getting a cheap trick that's got to be like your parents or somebody?

Devin Bronson: 1:58

I definitely I definitely was too young. Probably it was, I think it was like 1997 My dad was really cool. My dad's a musician. Oh, and he used to when I got into guitar and got into music, he would be really supportive of like, taking me to shows if there was a band I like he would take me. Like I saw the Foo Fighters first concert they ever did in LA and my dad even let me go in the mosh pit with him like it was just wow. Take him. You know, don't tell your mother You're not Morrow we're gonna go see a concert. So one of the bands, they were playing at the coach house in San Juan Capistrano was this band Cheap Trick and he's like, I saw this band open for kiss in the 70s. And they blew my mind and you you have to see them. And I remember I was like, Okay, I didn't know much about them. And I was 15 I think, okay, I'm 14 years old. And I I go see them in like Rick Nielson comes out and just has this beard with guitar picks hanging on it and all the crazy guitars and they just blew my mind completely. And I'm like from this day for cheap tricks. My favorite band ever and I've seen them probably 20 times since then.

Chuck Shute: 2:58

And if you got to like interact with them or work with them in any way, or at least meet them. I

Devin Bronson: 3:02

did. Yeah, I did. I had a really cool experience one time with an artist I work with named Ali and AJ there and more the pop side and we had a tour manager Janine Edwards that was working with I think Def Leppard at the time, hmm. And she invited us Def Leppard poison and cheap trick. We're doing a show and she said, You guys want to come? And I go, Well, yeah, but we're going early because cheap tricks that man we got to see in there on first, right. And we go to the show, and Robin Zander, the singer, cheap tricks daughter happened to be huge fan of these girls. So we're there. And then, you know, backstage, all the guys and all the bands and their kids are coming up and getting autographs from these girls. Right? And I'm sitting there going, you know, I'm with Rick Nielsen and Robin Zander just kind of chatting with them. And Robin was telling me about the Beatles show they were doing in Vegas at the time they did the sergeant Pepper's. They basically played Sergeant Pepper front to back and they did this big elaborate show with strings. And it was at the Hilton in Las Vegas. And we're sitting there talking Robin just goes to me. Hey, man, if you want to come just, you know, let our tour manager know. We'll put you on the list this weekend. So I go, Okay, I'm gonna take you up on that. So I called my dad, I go Cheap Trick just invited me to go to Vegas and see them play. So we immediately like you know, the next day or two days later, we got in the car and we drove there. And it was cool. They had passes for us. I went back and said hi to the guys and they were really cool. But it's funny because I Robin Zander his daughter when I showed up she saw me but then looked around me saw that I wasn't with the artists. I was bummed out that those girls weren't there right.

Chuck Shute: 4:40

Who are those girls? I was I saw that on your Instagram and I was asking my girlfriend because I never heard of him. She's like, Oh yeah, those those girls are big.

Devin Bronson: 4:47

Yeah, Ali and AJ are they started off kind of in the Hollywood Records scene that's when I met them and doesn't eight Okay, with you know, the Miley Cyrus is of the world right kind of genre and they were part of that machine but They since kind of stopped doing music and went into acting, and were very successful doing that, okay, and in the last three or four years, kind of DIY, on their own, came back doing music, they wanted to do their way and have grown it back into like a really successful touring operation. And they have a very loyal following doing the new stuff. That's really good.

Chuck Shute: 5:22

That's the ladies. Yeah, like some of those girl acts. I mean, like the Olsen twins. I mean, they just started out as these little kid actors, and then they've grown it into this empire. So it's pretty crazy if you can parlay all that stuff, and just keep going.

Devin Bronson: 5:33

Yeah, they're cool. And I kind of tell people, they should give them a second look, if they kind of remember them from that era, because, yeah, you know, they're doing it the way they want to do it on their own, doing absolutely how they want, which is very cool now, and when they've gone out, it started small and is gradually built back up into something kind of big again.

Chuck Shute: 5:54

Mm hmm. So So back to you. So like you said, cheap trick, not till you're 15. But you started playing guitar at 11. So who inspired you to play guitar? I mean, there must have been some other influences. Are you just doing it to get girls or was?

Unknown: 6:07

Well definitely didn't get girls. Oh,

Chuck Shute: 6:09

really? That was that.

Devin Bronson: 6:14

I'm either gonna play sports, or I'm gonna play music. And I didn't I wasn't built for sport. But no, I just got into it. I think that was like the era coming right out of like, Nirvana. And that whole scene. Sure. I just thought it was, you know, the cooler kids older than me liked all that and it got me into it. And then there were bands that I felt. I got into like early kind of, you know, Green Day that then led me down to like older punk rock bands that they were into, okay. And then as I continued to kind of once I got into high school and kind of just checked out and was like, I'm just this is what I'm doing. It took me into more like the heavy metal, hard rock stuff. And then when I got to like the Joe Satriani and Steve vies invima scenes, I was like, Okay, I'm just going to be a nerd and try to do this.

Chuck Shute: 7:02

Could you do that stuff?

Devin Bronson: 7:04

I'm not like them. I don't think so. Yeah, they're pretty I mean, I I was I was definitely like, the the shreddy guitar kind of stuff is what I got really into for years.

Chuck Shute: 7:14

Okay. And so,

Devin Bronson: 7:16

yeah. Oh, basically, that that was that got that took me down that path. And then, you know, once I was 16, and you know, playing guitar eight hours a day, it did put me in a position for like, you know, I could go in the LA Weekly. And, you know, somebody needs a guitar player in a band, and I could go audition and I was getting a band of guys much older than me.

Chuck Shute: 7:37

Right. So yeah, you started you started playing with these older bandmates, like, so. How did you first get involved with these other music? Like, do you remember the first time you played on stage? Like how does

Devin Bronson: 7:48

that happen? The weirdest The first time I ever played on stage was was with my dad's band at the four he was the lounge piano player at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. Okay, it was on New Year's Eve. And they did their big party band thing. And I came and played and George Thorogood got up and did Gloria with us. So I get to say my first gig ever was with George Thorogood technically. That's pretty

Chuck Shute: 8:09

amazing. Yeah, it was cool. Did you know who he was at that time? Because I've done a lot of younger.

Devin Bronson: 8:15

No, I knew bad to the bone. Yeah, man to the bone. I go cool.

Chuck Shute: 8:19

Now he

Devin Bronson: 8:20

was he was he was really sweet and supportive and like, cool. And so you know, I definitely got to feel a little cool at school the next week, but yet the bands I was in, you know started with like local bands in my hometown, I grew up 30 miles north of LA and town Valencia, which is people who know California, Six Flags. That's where that is. Okay. And yeah, I just there was the there was two ways to get in bands at that time. I remember this is pretty kind of internet was like, LA Weekly would have some listings. And then a magazine called music connection would have classifieds for people looking for guys and bands. So I responded to a few of those and, you know, ended up in a band with a heavy metal drug dealer that didn't work out and one of them you know, there were some weird ones along the way. Sure. There were a couple really cool ones when I got in, you know how to a hired gun drummer that was in the band Berlin, and they were like, probably the most serious thing it was probably like, right around this was coming up to like 2000 when like, Linkin Park was like breaking and a lot of that electronic kind of mix, right? heavy rock guitars thing was happening.

Chuck Shute: 9:31

Absolutely. And

Devin Bronson: 9:32

and we did pretty well. I mean, we had, you know, we could do really well in clubs in and around LA, the guys. Corn at the time had a label and imprint on Interscope that came out to see us and we were in talks with them and oh, wow, it was my first it was my first time of saying like, Whoa, this I could be in a real band now and

Chuck Shute: 9:49

yeah, you definitely can. So yeah. So then how did it wasn't long after you know being all these bands and stuff. You get your first touring gig with Kelly Osborne, Osborne's daughter right? she asked you to join her band, like how did she find you? And like, do you get the call from Sharon? Or was it somebody else? Or did you have to try out? Like walk me through this whole process? Because this is pretty. This is a pretty big break that that you got, right?

Devin Bronson: 10:15

Yeah, that was that was like the classic la cattle call, like, really, you know, movie where there's 500 guitar players in a line outside of a rehearsal studio? Is

Chuck Shute: 10:26

it really you think? 500?

Devin Bronson: 10:28

Well, I mean, it could be exaggerating, but it's a lot. Okay. And there are a couple different headhunters in Los Angeles that do this type of thing. And sometimes that is the case and I was 18 years old. I was right out of high school. And through a mutual connection, somebody said, yeah, this guy owns this rehearsal studio. They're doing an audition for Kelly Osborne. And at this time, they were like, the most famous people on the planet. Sure. osbornes was massive on TV. So yeah, I went down completely green, you know, just did my thing and got a call myself and another guitar player named Matt Dozier. They were like, we're gonna pick you two guys to come do this. You leave in a week? We're going in London. Hope you got you have a passport. Awesome.

Chuck Shute: 11:18

So somebody else that I did. It wasn't Sharon, or Ozzy or Kelly. They weren't

Devin Bronson: 11:22

they weren't there. No. Okay. They, yeah, it was a kind of thing. They put bands together. I can't remember if they had like, I don't know. I can't remember exactly how that worked out. But I think they were sending videos and somebody else was kind of filtering down a group of maybe they Yeah, they showed the the top 10 to them or something like it was some it was something like that. That seems to happen.

Chuck Shute: 11:47

So yeah. So tell me about that experience.

Devin Bronson: 11:49

What you worked with her for was like a year and a half, two years, a couple years. It was amazing. And it was like I definitely, you know, was shot out of a cannon going into that. And then yeah, you know, even for me, it was like our entire road crew and security and everybody were all Ozzy's guys. And you'd be they put us rehearsing next door to Ozzy and zakk Wylde and Trujillo. And, you know, Mike Gordon, and we get to, like, just walk in there and, you know, hang with Ozzy, and I'm, this is absolutely insane and awesome. And at that time, you know, she was like I said, the family were so famous. Like, it was, you know, every award show all over the world. And then we did the Robbie Williams, who's he's a big star here, but he's a massive star in Europe. That's right. Yeah. Did a stadium tour and we got to be the opening act on that tour with the darkness at the time. They were a new

Chuck Shute: 12:41

band. Love the darkness.

Devin Bronson: 12:42

Yeah, who we are. There were shows that we did like club shows back then, where the darkness were the opening act. And remember just walking out going this band is unbelievable. He had his full leotard, and everything just Yeah, but um, yeah, it was. Yeah, that tour was insane. Like that. We did three nights at Knebworth, which was the record at the time, I think before that Oasis did too. And zeplin did one, and it's you know, 175,000 people three nights in a row. So that was like, you know, that was like my first year out of high school was getting to do really cool stuff like that as a higher gun for somebody. Wow.

Chuck Shute: 13:15

So when you're a hired gun like that, I mean, what is the relationship with you? Are you and Kelly Osborne college friends, there's a kind of like, she's, you're almost like the waiter or something like how does that how does that relationship I've

Devin Bronson: 13:25

been? I mean, I've been fortunate, I haven't talked to Kelly in years. But at that time, we were pretty close. And I've been fortunate most people I've worked with, there's a really fun, dynamic friendship. Because I mean, it is weird. You're on your traveling circus. Basically, you're on the road, you're living with these people. And I have heard stories from other people. But I've been fortunate that the acts I've been able to work with have been really cool and fun to be around.

Chuck Shute: 13:53

That's cool. So yeah, so then the next one is is avviene. I mean, that's a huge one. Again, I didn't know that until I started doing the research because I knew Sebastian Bach, but I was like, Oh, my God Avril, Levine's guitar player that's even bigger than Sebastian Bach. So and you're also the musical director for her. So what does that mean? To be the musical director? What does that job entail? Really,

Devin Bronson: 14:12

so that I mean, that happened? The timeline from that was so the Kelly Osborne thing ends. And, you know, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just now you know, I'm 19. Now just bumming around LA, you know, thinking it's like, oh, you just get gigs, like, super easy. That guy's gonna call me again next year. And the other amazing thing to go do and that's not happening. And then I end up meeting. A singer of this band named treble charger from Canada. Who, right, very successful in Canada. nobody really knew him in the States. And he said, we have a tour opening for some 41 in arenas in Canada. We need a guitar player, my guitar player quit. So I said, I'll go up and do that. And that was fun because now I'm touring with like rock bands and it was still that era where it was just completely wild and nuts. And it was just absolutely insane. So right around that time, well, the singer of that band was neighbors with Avril Levine randomly. Hmm. And so I had met her and then I'd met her in her band, doing radio shows with Kelly Osborne, like, you know, there's all these, okay? radio stations always have their like, you know, jingle ball, Summer summerfest show and I'm sorry if that bounced in there. And I did. So, so I'd known her for a while. So I was working with this band. We were going to start a record. It wasn't going well. It was like the singer that band was a producer as well. So he was just distracted. Like he was flying back to LA. They were based in Toronto, so I'd moved to Toronto. I was like living in this guy's condo like trying to get a record done. And it was going horribly. And one day Avril called me and she said, my guitar player is quitting. He got his own record deal. He was gonna go do his own thing. Hmm. And can you come join my band? I'm like, sign me up. Done. Like I'm leaving. Doing it. Let's go. So

Chuck Shute: 16:13

is she gay? Have your number though.

Devin Bronson: 16:15

She just Well, I know. I'd known her at that point. Okay, like, yeah, yeah. Through and then she, you know, I'm, I got really close with some 41 guys, and she was married to Derek wibbly. From some 41. Right.

Chuck Shute: 16:26

Yeah.

Devin Bronson: 16:28

Or was dating him at the time? She wasn't married yet. But um, yeah, so that was that was basically it. He her old guitar player decided Evan said he was gonna go out and do his own thing. And she needed somebody. And she was like, massive at this time. She'd just come riding. Yeah, 20 million of our first record, and the second record had just come out. And yeah, that was that was like years of my life of just touring non stop and being gone. And that was, that was learning like the real work of touring. That was like, Okay, now we're, now we're in it. Now I'm gone. The 2005 I think I was home for seven days non consecutive, like being gone completely.

Chuck Shute: 17:12

And so your first show with her was this thing in New York, and you had to learn the mandolin. And you didn't even know how to play that you had a few days to learn an entire instrument is that hard? You know, like when you often

Devin Bronson: 17:26

think like, oh, obviously, everything is always very organized. And everyone knows what's happening and what's going on. And that was definitely in that instance, not the case. I had flown out a week early to kind of just get the lay of the land what was going on because it was literally going to be like pass the baton. This guy leaves I'm on stage that night. Like there was no downtime. It was like they were out and working. And so one of the things was this show called Fashion Rocks where they pair you up with people. So it was Yeah, Johnny Resnick from the Goo Dolls and Avril. We're doing Iris at this big show. And Gianni shows up at the rehearsal. And I'm just kind of sitting there because I'm just supposed to be there like watching. And somebody in the rooms like, Who's gonna play the mandolin on this song. Like it's the big part of this song. It's like a massive, it's like the opening hook of the song. And everyone's just kind of like, I don't know, and then it was like, you should just do it. And I've never even touched a mandolin before. And I go, I guess we got to figure this out tour manager finds one at si er in New York gets into my room. I'm sitting there just trying to like figure out you know, this is pre YouTube. I couldn't go watch some

Chuck Shute: 18:37

crap.

Devin Bronson: 18:38

Yeah, I'm just like trying to hear each note and play it. And we did it. It probably wasn't great. And but it it did the job at least. And I remember talking to Johnny Resnick, tech years later, and he was like, how'd you figure out the tuning? So what to do, he's like, Oh, it's two in this special way. You literally move one finger up and now I go, that would have been great to know that like, you see me in the video, I'm sitting down looking at it like, I'm, you know, some bluegrass player that doesn't doing

Chuck Shute: 19:08

but you did it. So you got through. So yeah, like you said, I mean, it's Apple Levine at arguably the peak of her career right at the peak of her popularity so all the shows and touring that you did with Avril is there one or like some that some of those shows or parties or events that like really stand out to you like, you must have had some run ins with some like really big rock stars or really famous people at that time. Right?

Devin Bronson: 19:31

Of course. Yeah. Yeah. There were some I mean, due to NDA, I might not discuss some of them. But

Chuck Shute: 19:38

do you really have to sign NDA? Yeah.

Devin Bronson: 19:41

I mean, a lot of x you do sign NDA is with really you're out with them? Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 19:45

I did not know that. Like Advil makes you sign. Are you saying the other people or both?

Devin Bronson: 19:50

I can't remember if I signed one with her. Honestly. That's what that's why I'm saying that. I gotta remember who I did and who I didn't.

Chuck Shute: 19:57

Gotcha, gotcha.

Devin Bronson: 19:58

I know a show with her. That was really memorable for me back to you know, my love of cheap trick was we did three nights at the Buddha con in Tokyo which is where geometrics famous live album was for live a Buddha con. Yeah, yeah. And so in one of the nights our opening act is this guy named Butch Walker, who's an unbelievable fellow artist. Yeah. And a producer. he'd written some of Admiral's hits with her. And I go, if you know how that record starts, it starts with the guy going. Oh, right talk. Yo, are you ready? It's the intro to cheap trick. I go. I'm gonna intro Butch Walker with that, like, let's do that intro again. And Butch made a live from Buddha con DVD of this show, which was kind of cool, huh? Yeah, one just stood out because it was like, yeah, this is my favorite album ever was recorded here. And this is cool. We're doing it.

Chuck Shute: 20:46

That's very cool. Yeah, so yeah, talk about working with Butch because I mean, he's worked with he was I know a lot of people probably don't know this, but he was in like a hair band called South gang. You play guitar play. That's how I first thought and then he was in this band called the marvelous three. But since he's gone on to be a producer he's worked with like and songwriter with train Taylor Swift Green Day, Weezer. I mean, you guys did some live stuff, I think together. But did you ever work with him in the songwriting or producing capacity? Because, like, what is it about him that allows him to work with such high so many high level talent people and get so much work? Does he just like not sleep? Or like, What is the secret to that guy's success?

Devin Bronson: 21:23

He's just great. Like you. I mean, I, I knew of bush from marvelous three. Yeah. And that was like, you know, when we talk about that time of like, what was going on, like, musically, let's say 99 2000. Like, you know, I remember hearing this record ready sex go that they go this album rocks. This is so cool. And it's like, you know, lyrically, musically. It just kicked ass. And I couldn't understand why this wasn't like the biggest band in the world. I thought and then yeah, I became friendly with Butch just by like, reaching out to him like I would be in Atlanta doing a show even back with like Kelly Osborne or somebody, I'd go. I'm in town, man. You want to hang out and write me back? Okay, probably very confused. Our first night hanging out was like going out and getting completely smashed. And a guy parked the car. let the air out of the guy's tire. It was just like a wild night. We were just buddies ever since. That's awesome. Yeah. And it's I've been fortunate that I've been able to like work in so many circles, where, you know, Butch is kind of the guy at the core of a lot of things. And it is just I think it's because he's just so immensely talented. And anyone who anyone who gets into his solo work and even works with him realizes that he's got

Chuck Shute: 22:40

to have a high work ethic too, though, because I mean, you just look at his resume and his discography, like all these things that he's done. I'm like, how does he even have time to do all this? It's just

Devin Bronson: 22:51

fast. I mean, that on top of he still he tours is he's his own artist. Yeah, he's a solo. Yeah, he makes his own records and goes out on his tours. So he does it all.

Chuck Shute: 23:02

So working with him that led you to working with pink. So tell me about working with her. You got to play. So what? I love that song. Yeah, we that was was that kind of a one off? Or was that it? That

Devin Bronson: 23:14

was an interesting time. They we were in talks, I was going to do a tour with them. They wanted somebody they called me. It came through Butch and one other person and they called me and what they were looking for was kind of the utility guy. And I'd never done that. It was like, we need you to play keys and guitar. She has an unbelievable guitar player, this guy named Justin Darko. And so they wanted to kind of fill out the sound and do like, well, we want double guitar and some songs and then some songs, we want keyboards. And I was working with an artist already at that time. But it was like, come out and you know, do some rehearsals with us and see how it goes. The rehearsals went great. We were doing a couple TV shows, and I go MTV Video Music Awards and some things. So I did that. And then the tour manager was like, you know, we're about to leave for two years. And I was like, I gotta think about this one. This is that's a long time to two

Chuck Shute: 24:05

years straight. And

Devin Bronson: 24:07

then and then on top of it, it was like, and you know, that 8020 keyboard guitar thing we're gonna flip that we need you on keyboards, 80% 20 guitar, and I go, there's so many better people for that. I don't even know if I can do that. Like, you know, some of those songs are beyond me being able to do those on keys. So I was like, you know, it was like let's not do that.

Unknown: 24:29

That we're not gonna do so

Chuck Shute: 24:30

you kind of you basically turned it down.

Devin Bronson: 24:32

It was it was pretty mutual. I think we understood once once it was defined kind of what was what everyone was looking at. Yeah, like the time and that it wasn't really like I thought I was going in we're doing two guitars.

Chuck Shute: 24:43

Mm hmm Sure.

Devin Bronson: 24:44

Just Justin can be the shredder and I'll be the rhythm guy. Hmm. But

Chuck Shute: 24:48

you want to be the shredder anyways right? That's exactly yeah, that's a better thing to do.

Unknown: 24:51

Exactly.

Chuck Shute: 24:52

So then that leads to I don't know how are you tell me how how'd you have Sebastian Bach find you like did you have to audition or you got to tell me a story that first meeting because he is a character I love Sebastian Bach stories. Hopefully you didn't sign an NDA for that one.

Devin Bronson: 25:07

No, no, definitely not. He's got some amazing stories. You know that working with him started. That came through Duff McKagan from Guns and Roses. Love does.

Chuck Shute: 25:17

How did you How'd you find him? or How did you know him?

Devin Bronson: 25:20

I met through a mutual friend that I work with. Who happened he was the drummer and loaded for a while. Okay, Deaf solo band.

Chuck Shute: 25:27

Yeah. So,

Devin Bronson: 25:29

yeah, so I became friendly with Duff. And he was Sebastian was working on a record he had like a song from john five song idea from john john five, one or two from Steve Stevens, and that was it. And he needed to get a record done. And he was in the studio with Bob Marley and Duff came into work with them. And I don't know I think Jeff just was like, you know, you want to come in and do this with us. Like, I think you might be good to come in and like work on a song. Let's just go and do a song. I'll do a song with Sebastian Bach. Hell yeah.

Chuck Shute: 25:59

Were you a fan of Sebastian? Oh, yeah. Okay.

Devin Bronson: 26:02

Yes. Oh, my God. Yes. Labor the grind. I remember that record, like, yes. Like, the opening of that record just hit me in the head. Yeah, I love Sebastian box. I'm like, this is awesome. And it was like, you know, I want to do a rock record like this. That sounds killer. So we go in, and we write a song in like, 15 minutes. And it's great. And then it was like Sebastian goes, you know Duff's busines doing other stuff. And especially like, can you come in again tomorrow? Yeah, let's do it. So it turned into me doing like nine songs on the album with him where I just came in. We wrote the record. I track most of the guitars on the record track a lot of the bass, it was very just like, write it. Go record it.

Chuck Shute: 26:42

What was the first song that you guys did in 15 minutes?

Devin Bronson: 26:45

It was a song called harmony.

Chuck Shute: 26:47

Okay. That's on there, right? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And so was that the first time that you kind of were given like, because I think whatever. Lavina I don't think you ever did you even appear on any of the actual albums, or you didn't do a lot of songwriting with her right?

Devin Bronson: 27:00

I did. I wrote a song with her that never got recorded. And the fortunate thing was, I was able to get a publishing deal out of it at the time, so that was a good deal.

Chuck Shute: 27:07

Okay, nice.

Devin Bronson: 27:08

Yeah, that was I mean, when you're talking about somebody like her she has, you know, every mega mega songwriter in the worlds coming Yeah, with right, with serious hits. Absolutely. You know, when you're just like, Hey, I got an idea.

Chuck Shute: 27:22

You're competing with like, yes, Anna

Devin Bronson: 27:24

Walker's songwriter. Yeah. Which is so yeah, I'm not gonna beat bush on a song for sure.

Chuck Shute: 27:29

So but so Sebastian Bach, you're almost kind of like a member of the band. He's letting you write songs and record all these all these guitar that

Devin Bronson: 27:36

was I got brought in just to be Yeah, I was just doing the record with him. But he tours so constantly that it was in during sessions, it'd be I have a festival show this week. Can you come do it? Like cuz he didn't have a guitar player. And he's, I got to go fly out and do this festival in Canada. I go. Alright, I guess you know, I got to learn all the skid row songs now, which is amazing. And so that's how that started, where we would just be in the middle of doing the album and I would fly out and do these random one off shows with him. And then sometimes it would be like, Oh, we have two weeks with us and rat headlining with dokin and Lita Ford. I go This is awesome. That's a heavy metal.

Chuck Shute: 28:26

I'm in that's cool. I didn't know if you were like a fan because I'm you know, I'm seeing all these different artists you work with. I'm like, there's got to be some that you're like, says okay, but like so you're really into that that scene and stuff. And you're a fan of?

Devin Bronson: 28:37

Yeah, I mean, that that's, that's my, you know, the core of where I come from, is that music

Chuck Shute: 28:42

that's really cool metal. So like, when john five and Steve Stevens are laying their tracks down for that album, had they already done there? Or were they were you able to watch them because I think that would be cool as a guitar player to just like, watch them play and see how they do in the studio. I

Devin Bronson: 28:58

know. I know. Steve Stevens, I think did his tracks at his place. Oh, really? And then yeah, and then I redid some of the rhythm guitars and then you know, his all his solos and we co wrote one song but not together. We basically like you know, Steve had the chorus and I did the verse. Okay, and then john five I don't know if he came in with Bob Marley letter if he did it his home studio. Because now I mean now with the world. Yeah, that's true remote recording, like so much works and sharing files and Pro Tools and all those reasons. It's very efficient. You know, you don't get the same kind of like camaraderie in the room. Sure. I think that's what was cool. You know, when you know, Sebastian and I currently are trying to finish up some songs for his next record. Oh, really? You're gonna be on the new one? Yeah, yeah, we have some really cool stuff right now. But oh, we're dealing with COVID and like, trying to do it over zoom in central files and get whereas before I can have a guitar in the room and he's there and says no, no, no do this. Yeah, I can sing something and then we're all hyped and it happens. I'll see

Chuck Shute: 30:09

because I thought you guys had split I thought I thought he cuz he's got Brent Woods touring guy and you're the studio guy.

Devin Bronson: 30:16

Yeah, Brent, Brent's been working on the record, though, to0 the way, you know, this. The music industry is very much especially like in LA, there are all these people that you see often that are all kind of working. And it's not uncommon to you know, pop back in and he's out with this guy now. And this person comes back and you're working on this. And he's also it's, you know, there's a camaraderie there. I love Brent. He's amazing.

Chuck Shute: 30:41

Yeah, I tried to get him on the show he because he was in a band called wildside. I even like the band, but he's also worked with Vince Neil. And I mean, that guy's a great guitar player, for sure he's in.

Devin Bronson: 30:50

He's in the bandwidth, Chris Chaney from Foo Fighters ever know, or Taylor Hawkins from Foo Fighters in Christiani.

Chuck Shute: 30:55

What's Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah, I

Unknown: 30:56

saw that. All writers.

Chuck Shute: 30:58

Yes. I thought they were on like, Fallon, or something. Yeah.

Devin Bronson: 31:01

Yeah. They got multiple names. Yes. That's

Chuck Shute: 31:03

very cool. So can you give me any sort of, like hints about the new Sebastian, like a song title or a lyric or a theme or anything? Or is it all under NDA thing?

Devin Bronson: 31:14

No, I mean, this stuff I have done with him. It's First of all, one of the songs is like seven minutes long, epic, like really massive. Yeah. And then it's an extension. You know, I think he wants to go. I don't he pushes it. I mean, he's like, the heavy metal, Steve Perry. So there's a big Canvas for him. So I send him like an idea. And then he'll send me back like a vocal and I go, Whoa, like, that's cool. Like that scream is, that's what we should do.

Chuck Shute: 31:49

Yeah, it's

Devin Bronson: 31:50

still, it's still early. I mean, I'm hoping we can get in a room together. Because I know that's when we worked really fast, like on the last record, or when we were in the room. with Bob being able to say, that's great. track it.

Chuck Shute: 32:04

Okay, so there's a seven minute song is it? Is it gonna blow my mind? Is this stuff that's gonna be blown me away?

Devin Bronson: 32:09

If it's if it stays that way? I don't know. Things get edited down once you start working, and then you bring in, you know,

Chuck Shute: 32:14

who's the producer? Is this Bob Marllette on this one too?

Devin Bronson: 32:18

I don't know who's gonna do this. Okay. There's been some names thrown around, but I'm not, I'm not sure what they're gonna decide to do.

Chuck Shute: 32:24

So you're going to use this either. These are just demos and right now.

Devin Bronson: 32:29

Yeah, yeah. Okay, basically. I mean, but but now sometimes, you know, you can do you know, when I'm working with somebody, like all I try to produce it, like, it's a final track at my studio, like I, I pretend I'm making the record and send it. So sometimes that does end up on the album. Okay. Sometimes it's good that those guitars were great.

Chuck Shute: 32:48

Yeah, like you said, with the technology. I mean, it's really, it's crazy. I mean, I hear people that self produced pretty much stuff. And you know, it's on Spotify. And it's, you can't tell the difference between that and something that was, you know, a million dollar studio or whatever. So

Devin Bronson: 33:02

there are a number one hits that are done in hotel rooms on a laptop.

Chuck Shute: 33:05

Really? It's not. Yeah, that's crazy. So yes,

Devin Bronson: 33:09

I think I think there's a video I think it was Justin Bieber and Skrillex, maybe, DJ producer, I think they did one of his songs. And there's a video of it of them literally, like putting the mattress on the wall with a mic in a hotel room and a laptop. And it went number one. I mean, we could get into like, you know, a lot of details, but I sure people like it.

Chuck Shute: 33:33

Yeah, I mean, with the computers and stuff. I mean, how much of it? Yeah, you can just you can you can fix things. You can fix muscles and things out of key and all that stuff. And then you kind of but then it doesn't cut you short, the question? Is it really? music? Is it really a musician playing a song? If it's pushing buttons on a computer?

Devin Bronson: 33:49

I think I think you can hear that, like, you know, when there's when there's a performance, especially, you know, in rock, yeah, you hear the performance. And, you know, there's, there's something that's not perfect about it, or there's some just like real danger in it. I think that comes across to the listener, even if they can't put their finger on it. It's like, yeah, that is much better than if it's quantized and put on the lines chopped up completely.

Chuck Shute: 34:15

Right. Yeah, no, I love that. That's why I love concerts. I love seeing the music come to life with that energy. And it's not the same. Watching the you know, the online concerts. I want to see it in person. I hope that comes back soon.

Devin Bronson: 34:29

Yeah, I know. It's, we'll see. It's hard to it's hard to know where we're at with that. But yeah, so a little while still Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 34:38

So other people you were I mean, you work with Demi Lovato, Mike Posner, Deryck whibley, like set from some 41. So like when you're working with these big people, like how long does it take to get over the fact that you're working with such a big talent? Like, is it five minutes after you meet them, you kind of just move on forget that or is that something that's kind of always on your mind and you sometimes worry about like, well, I don't want to screw this up for This big person or I,

Devin Bronson: 35:03

I don't want to screw anything up ever. Like, I'm always kind of just, you know, I want to be the guy that shows up and knows everything. I don't want to be figuring something out in the room like, you know, I've done. I've done gigs with people and the guys are bringing in charts and I go, I just couldn't do that. I will. I need to know what this is. I'm not gonna sit and guess. Right. And there's not there's nothing knocking that. It's just saying like, I don't know if it's about the person as much as it's, I mean, yeah.

Chuck Shute: 35:35

So that would be so just being prepared, I think. Yeah. Like, I remember I remember. I mean,

Devin Bronson: 35:40

one of those times was, I auditioned to tour with Rihanna. And they had just hired Nuno Bettencourt from extreme to be her guitar player.

Chuck Shute: 35:51

Yeah, he's great.

Devin Bronson: 35:52

So I came in, and it was like the music director, Tony, Bruno was like, Alright, in this section of this song, like you guys trade off solos. And that was one of those times where like, I didn't know, I go, oh, man against New No. This guy, I love this. Yeah, this new record. And I so that was like, one of those times I remember feeling like, Whoa, crap. But worked out. It was fun.

Chuck Shute: 36:15

Did you so you got that gig

Devin Bronson: 36:16

or no, I didn't do that gig. Okay. Now I can remember who ended up doing that.

Chuck Shute: 36:21

So what other gigs Have you audition for that you didn't get? Is there any that you really wish you could have gotten?

Devin Bronson: 36:31

One that I submitted. This was a weird one. I got a call from somebody and you had to submit like videos and just information. And they were gonna review that and then even tell you if they were going to give you an audition. And that was Prince. And I remember being in New York, and getting this call. And it was they were being very, like, not wanting to tell you who this artist was. Hi. I said, Well, I'm in New York, I'm not going to be there to do it was going to be like, we're going to call you and you can come over like tomorrow. Okay, this. And I said, I got to know who it is like I will. And they said it's for prints. I go, I will be on the next slide.

Chuck Shute: 37:13

This is even.

Devin Bronson: 37:17

And I guess he saw me and saw my videos was like No, not that guy. So it didn't end up happening. But I remember sitting there going now it'd be so cool. If they call me and say come play with prints. Because he was notorious for doing these, like, bring you over to his house and do like a 10 hour jam or something at like midnight. Yeah, he would feel people out. He would

Chuck Shute: 37:36

play basketball is another thing on the Chappelle show. I remember them like playing basketball with prints. And like I don't I don't remember see

Devin Bronson: 37:42

that. But I mean, I never I never got to meet them. So I but I was that was the one I was like, I'm hoping I even get this call.

Chuck Shute: 37:49

That would have been amazing. Wow. I mean, you've already worked with some legends. But Geez, that would have been and now it's just sad. Because he's obviously Yeah, but yeah, so like Steve Stevens, I had him on. And he was telling me like, the reason that him and Billy Idol can work together so long is because he knows like it's Billy show. If ever there's a disagreement, he gives it to Billy so like, but he has like a solo stuff and a side project. Like do you like playing on other people's stuff? More? Or do you like doing your own project? Like you have your own project right now? Like a solo project? Or bainite? Yeah, I

Devin Bronson: 38:20

mean, I do it all I fell into, you know, when I would be off the road, I would always be working on stuff in my studio. I didn't know what it was for. Okay. And I like all types of music. So it wasn't specific to anything. And I, I fell into doing something called Production Music for libraries for TV shows, yeah, or shows. And where, you know, someone would say we're looking for some rock songs. And I would do summer we're looking for some stuff. That's bluesy, whatever it was. And so I took that as like, I'm very good at like, tell me the task, like what are we doing, I think was David Foster that said, like, I don't write a song unless somebody needs a song. And I can relate to that because I go, you know, I don't just sit there and just do stuff. Sometimes I do it better. If there's like a an ask, like, let's really,

Chuck Shute: 39:09

you don't get inspired. Like if something. Okay, like if someone dies or something terrible happens. Or maybe he's having a really good day and you just want to like get that onto a song.

Devin Bronson: 39:18

Not so much that No, it's just more like I treat it kind of as a job where I go every day I'm going to sit down and do something okay. But when it but when there is either a deadline or a task on something, that's when I I think I do my best stuff. And so, so I got into that. And I built up a massive catalogue doing music for different production libraries. And that led that led me into kind of like saying, well, I kind of want to get more into you know, doing some more cinematic stuff and some more horror sounding stuff. And I got fortunate I landed a couple of film trailers which in the world of what we do, those can be pretty lucrative. Those sync licenses when you land those are commercials. Another guy that does this a lot is blue service, you know?

Chuck Shute: 40:06

Oh, yeah. boyson Yeah,

Devin Bronson: 40:08

yeah. He and the guys in warrant have a catalog. They do a lot of this too.

Chuck Shute: 40:12

I think Eric Turner told me about that. Yeah.

Unknown: 40:14

Yeah.

Devin Bronson: 40:16

It's cool. Because it's not, you know, with popular music now. It's, if you turn on top 40 radio, it's gonna sound a certain way, it doesn't have a lot of diversity. Right. And especially with, well, you know, where I come from, and you know, where, like, more guitar player rock people come from. So that took me into doing that. And I started my own company to do it. So noise candy music is a company I have we service, you know, 70 to 100 different clients. For every, you know, television, film trailers, advertising, you know, bespoke corporate work. And we just did a deal with a distributor. So now we're in 40 different countries, and that that catalog is growing that we started that in 2017. Oh, that's great.

Chuck Shute: 41:08

Yeah. So like, you had a song on the hills. You had a song on Californication? I mean, these are pretty big show. So like, do you tune in to watch that episode to hear your song? Or is like, because

Devin Bronson: 41:18

sometimes, you know, it's there, like, you know, they're they've licensed this specific song for this show.

Chuck Shute: 41:25

Okay. Yeah, I

Devin Bronson: 41:26

mean, you know, in the last couple years, we had a trailer for the Joker movie. I need the list in front of me, we had a really good couple of years of like, some big, big film campaigns that we were involved with. And some of them were custom making the stuff for it. Some of them was something from our catalog, we did that.

Chuck Shute: 41:46

So they can go look through the catalog and you've already done stuff. And they could just pick and choose what they like.

Devin Bronson: 41:50

Yes. So what we do is we do about an album every six weeks, and it'll be in a style. Okay, style. I have a business partner, Adam Parker. And we work with some really talented other writers that collaborate with me or some some collaborate on their own and send us stuff. And yeah, we'll, we'll pick a style, like, you know, one of our records was, I want music that's like intense criminal drug cartel, cinematic music, whatever that means, of Narcos meets. Okay, Carrio. And we'll we'll craft an album in that style. Another album we did was saying, you know, what if Muse met Tim Burton, what would they do? Like, let's try to do some stuff in that stuff.

Chuck Shute: 42:37

That's an interesting style.

Devin Bronson: 42:38

Yeah, that's, you know, some of it lands and some of it doesn't. Okay. And we're really we seem to do really well in horror and like thriller, that genre. So we double down on a lot of that work.

Chuck Shute: 42:50

Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, cuz it's more guitar driven. I would think and,

Devin Bronson: 42:54

and yeah, you know, I tend to write darker stuff anyway.

Chuck Shute: 42:58

Yeah, for sure. So how did you get the nicknames? You have a nickname evil D, or D ROC? How did you get such and such cool nicknames? It's not like something lame.

Devin Bronson: 43:08

You got a cool nickname. Those I don't know why. Those are still even written anywhere.

Chuck Shute: 43:14

Evil. That's right. Yeah.

Devin Bronson: 43:19

Evan Thompson Feld and I were in a band. He was actually a grizzled guitar player him and I had Ryan Yeah, for a while, called the blacklist club. And everyone had evil because in his court, the name of his Corporation at the time was big evil corporation. So it was evil evil D.

Chuck Shute: 43:37

Okay. That's cool. Do you have any advice for like aspiring guitar players? Is that even a thing? Now? Do kids want to be guitar players? Everyone wants to be a DJ. But if there was a kid that wanted to be a guitar player, you know, it's

Devin Bronson: 43:52

weird, because I think now, the change and there are guys that have adapted to this like masterfully, like, Pete Thorne and Tim Pierce, where they're using things like YouTube, using social media. That seems to be a way for a lot of these guys to just get out. I mean, I'll turn on YouTube, and I'll see some kid in Japan who's like playing racer x, and it's blowing. Like, it's insane. When you go, you know, wow. But the music industry is an odd business. But it's a lot of fun. And, you know, don't be a dick is a big one.

Unknown: 44:32

There you go. He's

Devin Bronson: 44:33

easy to work with. You know, you you're playing in the gig are one hour of the day, the other 23 hours of the day, you got to be a person around other people. So be somebody that people want to be around. Sure, that would be the advice I would give anyone. That's good.

Chuck Shute: 44:51

Do you think that you're an underrated guitar player, like I mean, you've played with some of the biggest rock stars around but I just don't hear your name a lot when people talk about great guitar players like I'm trying to do research for this interview. And I'm like, Why is no one had had this kind of on their podcast? Like, this is a great guitar player? And I don't know, it's like, you kind of like it that way. Do you like being under the radar?

Devin Bronson: 45:10

Yeah, I don't I mean, I don't know. I mean, I thank you for saying that. But I also, it's just kind of the world of, you know, I'm often hired to be the hire guy behind some, you know, behind an artist. I'm not there to be out front all the time. Sure. So, I think when I was younger, I probably would have had a little more urgency to be like, Man, I wish I was more known for XY and Z. But as I've gotten older and doing what I do now, and I'm very happy doing it, and I love what I'm doing. It's just it's been great. And I get to see like different. I get different opportunities that Phil you know, that scratch that itch. Like I work with these DJs krewella who are huge in the EDM world, and that was basically me and Frank, Sumo, this drummer, we get to act like Pantera on top of EDM music, like that was the premise basically, like, we're gonna play this like really hard hitting EDM and you guys do whatever you want on top of it, and I was like, Okay, well, I'm gonna pretend I'm zakk Wylde and, you know, just shred on this or play metal riffs on top of this stuff and getting to do these massive festival shows like ultra in Brazil, for 80,000 people and play metal guitars and see these kids who've never seen a guitar in their life go that's pretty cool. Like, there was a lot of leeway there for that kind of stuff.

Chuck Shute: 46:29

Okay, and you do producing t right? you produce some song for this independent artists. It was it rose or I don't know if that's it, says de Rosa, and it blew up on tik tok. And

Devin Bronson: 46:40

that that was very educational for me. Because that was right in the height of COVID. Nobody knows what's going on. came through another producer. He said, there's some unsigned artist and she's, she has a song, but she recorded it. She didn't like how it sounded. And would you be able to, like, help her with it. And I didn't even know what that meant. I don't I don't. Okay. And so she wrote me and she basically just said, like, I'm, you know, I'm self financing this, I have this song. I listen to the song, it had a good course. And the other production wasn't great. And I thought, well, how would this work? Like, how would we do this in the age of COVID? Because I'm used to like sending files to people or finishing something on my own, but not the collaborate, like, everyone's sending stuff. And I'm gonna aggregate it here. Okay, put it all together. So with my friend, Isaac Carpenter from a wall nation, him and I got together, and we just like, okay, we're producing a song now and we did it. We sent it to her. She loved it, and then I would get I've never met her. And then I would get text messages from her saying songs number 10 on it. Wow, that's weird. And because I'm not on tik tok? I don't know. Sure. Yeah, that's, that's a whole different world. Yeah, even I don't even know what it is. I mean, I know it exists. But you know, it'd be text, you know, the next day. Now, number four. And I go, there has to be something weird going on here. Like, you know, I go, something's off about this. And then it was like literally, like, teetering, almost hitting number one ahead of like, bring me the horizon and all these other big bands. I go, how is this working? And she goes, I put it on Tick tock, I have a tick tock channel. And it's literally just exploded on there. Like, and it can drive this like, huge, like amount of people to whatever you're doing. And then like, you know, octane, Sirius XM started playing it and heavy rotation. Every hour, I heard on the radio numerous times. And I go, this is this is the new world for people to how to get their stuff out there, it seems. Absolutely. And when I started to kind of learn how that algorithm works with Tick Tock and with social media, a lot, you know, a lot of big, top 40 artists, that's how they got their start was they just posted something on tik tok, and it took off.

Chuck Shute: 49:03

Or you can do a lot of stuff on Instagram, or Snapchat or all that stuff.

Devin Bronson: 49:07

I think any of those platforms if like, if, if the audience can access it very quickly, like you're all you can be in front of millions and millions of people immediately.

Chuck Shute: 49:16

Mm hmm.

Devin Bronson: 49:17

You'd have to pay a fortune for that. You have to need a lot of people to do that. Now that that's where the labels had value is they could do that for you. Like, Oh, well now. Yeah. Some kid can post a song and it's, it's number one song and it's getting nominated for Grammys or whatever I go. That's pretty wild.

Chuck Shute: 49:32

It is pretty Yeah, it is. It's kind of a good and bad, I guess. Because it's almost like it's an oversaturated market too, though, because there's so much music out there. It's like you got to weed through there's a lot of good stuff, but there's a lot of crap too. So you got to kind of weed through and also like what I might think is crap, other people might love So, but it's nice that there's so much out there. Yeah,

Devin Bronson: 49:51

I liken it to like, you know, if you're sitting there at home and you're scrolling through Netflix, you're like, I don't know what to watch. It's like of course you have every option in the world, right like Too many, too many options. And it's like, you know, it's like going to Cheesecake Factory you don't know what to eat. And I that was a benefit, you know, now it will sound like old guys but like, you know, when you go to the record store, it's like, oh, that's the new. That's the new album on that label that was banned. I like I'm going to check that out. Right. It was almost like there's a filter system, the new releases

Chuck Shute: 50:20

and yeah, and the top, they had the top 10 or whatever the the record stores recommendation,

Devin Bronson: 50:25

or even before you know, radio became, you know, just a giant corporation when it would be like, oh, that program director and that talent, that station plays really cool stuff like that. I'm going to hear really awesome stuff there. So that part of it does get a little lost. I don't know. I mean,

Chuck Shute: 50:41

so how do you find music? New Music now? We're listened to word of mouth. Yeah.

Devin Bronson: 50:49

The last I'm trying to think of the last like unbelievable bands. Somebody turned me on to.

Chuck Shute: 50:54

Yeah, let me know. I'm always looking for new music.

Devin Bronson: 50:59

There has been a couple. I don't know how new it is. There's a band called Black map that I really like.

Chuck Shute: 51:06

I'll check them out. But

Devin Bronson: 51:10

yeah, I have to look there. Yeah. Like you said, there's just so much stuff constantly. Yeah, like, occasionally on like, on Apple Music or Spotify, we'll look at like, new rock Friday or new music Friday and just kind of like, while I'm on a walk, listen to a few of them and see if anything, grabs me. But

Chuck Shute: 51:29

yeah, listen to the like the today saw the charts or the rock charts. And I'll, I'll go through and try to listen to some of the newer stuff. But I think that a lot of the stuff I like is not necessarily popular. It doesn't hit the charts and stuff. So I'll find stuff that I'm like, this is like marvelous three, like you said, like you find a band like that. And you're like, Why is this not huge, but I don't for whatever reason, some of that stuff is popular, but

Devin Bronson: 51:50

it's really good. And these radio stations have like, you know, their playlist is 20 songs. Yeah. Exactly. The same songs just on exactly that station. Yeah. So yeah, it is. It's word of mouth. I think. And, you know, maybe, maybe I'm not tuned in but there are tastemakers out there that are the right ones to go to to hear new stuff. Absolutely. Well, I

Chuck Shute: 52:13

save this question for the end. Because if you hung up on me, I was like, well, I got all the rest of the interview. But I have to ask you about the afro Levine conspiracy theory. Have you heard of this? That she that she she was replaced by a doppelganger? I mean, it started out as a joke, but I mean, a lot of people actually believe this. So you weren't with us?

Devin Bronson: 52:32

I don't even know how to respond to that. Because it's like, it seems so like cool that a conspiracy theory like that would like how does that even

Chuck Shute: 52:42

Have you heard about that? You've heard it right.

Devin Bronson: 52:44

Yeah. And I know other people on like, you know, that have been asked this question and I have the same answer. Right. I don't even know that like answer that. It's if you think there's a fake person posing as somebody.

Chuck Shute: 52:56

There's I mean, but there's like, there was why

Devin Bronson: 52:58

I know that answer to that answer will be analyzed, like see how Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 53:01

yeah, you're right. He won't say no, there was one for Paul McCartney. Admittedly, there was one for Paul McCartney to that I think there's like a little like a mini documentary called fall McCartney or

Devin Bronson: 53:11

I don't know. It's like this is all about how he was dead.

Chuck Shute: 53:14

Yeah. And then that was Yeah, it was like that. They replaced him with a body double and I mean, yeah,

Devin Bronson: 53:18

well, that was all yeah, it was a wasn't it because of how he's barefoot in the Abbey Road cover and the other guys aren't and his left foots forward and the right foot

Chuck Shute: 53:28

people have too much time on albums.

Devin Bronson: 53:30

They say they say the walrus is Paul and the walrus means death and I go this is amazing and it almost makes me go like that should be perpetuated. Like let's keep that going.

Chuck Shute: 53:40

That stuff is fun though. Remember the one where the if you played a Pink Floyd The wall is synced it up with the Wizard of Oz. Like all these things like worked together? Like how do people find this stuff? It's

Devin Bronson: 53:51

crazy. It shows you it shows you what a slacker in high school I was because I took a class I'm blanking even on what the class was it was like the most like what are the easiest classes to take to get my credits and the teacher one of our I think it was some sort of marketing class we did like a day of like that was our was marketing and we got to watch the Wizard of Oz with dark side of the moon lined up to it and it was supposed to be like or just sorry, it was marketing. It was

Chuck Shute: 54:15

dark side of the moon not the wall. Yeah.

Devin Bronson: 54:17

Yeah, yeah. Dark said the moon lined up with Wizard of Oz. Like this class rocks.

Chuck Shute: 54:21

That's awesome. Wow, that's my homework. Absolutely. So you also have a production company. B Are you still have that bn audio, which makes like audio products?

Devin Bronson: 54:31

Yeah. Yeah. Being audio that's I got involved. I took an ownership stake in a company called the mix audio group and they do OEM projects, which is original equipment manufacturing. So they basically manage massive projects for companies so like that microphone you have right there or anything we get landed here in this country in the consumer electronics or Pro Audio side gets built somewhere. So I came on we had this concept for a rock and roll audio brand And it went well, it was an interesting time. And then we had the nice little Chinese trade war that happened. Mm hmm. And you know, that put the brakes on a lot of what we were doing but that brand, were morphing into something else. Okay. And, and yeah, and we're still we're still working on a bunch of projects over there. So we have factory partners in Shenzhen in China. And I'm trying to build out the portion of the business where we're gonna do Pro Audio projects or professional projects. So work with, you know, music companies, that's where I come from I go, there could be a lot of value and cool stuff we could do in that world.

Chuck Shute: 55:37

Awesome. Okay, well, people can check that out, too. Is there any other career highlights that I've missed? I think we went over almost everything.

Devin Bronson: 55:45

I don't you know, I'm sure there are some but we went over a lot. So I think we're good.

Chuck Shute: 55:50

Very cool. All right. And then do you have I always like to end with a charity? Is there a charity that you work with? Or that you want to just give a quick shout out to before we wrap up there? Yeah,

Devin Bronson: 55:57

there's there's one I think is really cool. I read this book, called the operator by Robert O'Neill. And if you don't know Robert O'Neal's, the Navy SEAL who took the kill shot and killed bin Laden, oh,

Chuck Shute: 56:08

I need to read that.

Devin Bronson: 56:09

It's a great book. It's amazing. And I mean, the, the whole book isn't about that. A lot of it's just about what it took to become a Navy SEAL for this guy, and what they go through. And as I'm like, reading this, I go, this is the most insane, these guys are unbelievable, right? And then you find out like, a lot of them coming out of seals have a hard time going into the private sector for work. A lot of them like big, like, you have these you have

Chuck Shute: 56:38

it's like a movie The Hurt Locker? Do you ever see that? They're,

Devin Bronson: 56:41

yeah, they're one in a million. Nobody can do what they can do. And then they come out and they're having a hard time finding a job. So he started a charity. I believe it's called the special operators fund. special operators transition fund. That's okay. But it was formerly called your grateful nation. And it was, it's a charity that kind of helps get people into the private sector in some good jobs. Because I'm 19 along with you know, when you run a business, I would imagine somebody who can go through SEAL training and become that is somebody I would want to work for me. Absolutely. Yeah. So it helps them

Chuck Shute: 57:18

just for the stories to tell it break time.

Unknown: 57:21

Absolutely.

Chuck Shute: 57:23

Yeah. Okay, cool. Well, yeah, he

Devin Bronson: 57:25

tells an awesome story, too. I mean, you know, these guys don't make a lot of money. Like a lot of these guys. They're so weird. And then, you know, they're mow their own lawn, because they can't afford a gardener. And you go, huh, there's something off of here. So that's what I don't get here talked about a lot. But yeah, I really like it. And I like the idea of it that

Chuck Shute: 57:41

I love all that to thank you so much for doing this. I will put that in the notes. I'll put all your links in the notes as well so people can check your stuff out your website, your social media. Great, man. Okay, well, thanks so much for doing this.

Unknown: 57:53

That was a lot of fun.

Chuck Shute: 57:54

Yeah, tell Sebastian. I'm gonna come and get him next. Absolutely. I'll let him know. All right. See ya. See ya. Bye, Devin Bronson. Remember that name? This kid is talented and people should know who he is. So many great musicians he's worked with and I'm sure more to come. That was crazy. They almost got to work with Prince. That would have been a great experience for sure. But still such an amazing resume. I really look forward to that new Sebastian Bach record that should be a lot of fun. Make sure to follow Devin on social media to keep up with all the cool stuff he's doing. Also check out his website. It'll be there in the show notes along with the charity he mentioned my Instagram. And you can also follow me on Facebook or even Twitter. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you check out some of the other ones I've done. A lot of great rock stars I've had on my guitar, Steve Stevens, who we mentioned earlier. And if you want to support the show, you can help me by either liking or following on social media sharing the episode on social media or if you really want to go out you can write me a review on iTunes. That really helps out quite a bit. Thanks again for listening and remember, shoot for the moon.