Thinking About You (w Cody Fry) - Episode 910

(This transcript is automated by baby robots, so forgive them if some of it is weird. They're just microchips.)

Turn up the radio and sing along. It's time for another Great Song. This is the Great Song pod. Season's greetings and welcome once again to the Great Song Podcast. I'm Rob Alley. , we're here to celebrate the greatest songs in modern music history. We're going to tell you what makes them great, why we think they're awesome and why you should to J.P..

How are you doing today? Name? I am doing fantastic. We are kicking off modern men of pop music. Come on with Rob's favorite artist of 2021. He has mentioned that on, on, on several occasions. So good little plug there. So many things I like about Cody Fry, which you will hear in our interview with him and like so many tubs, full disclosure.

I used all my best up in the interview and I wanted this artist to see our admiration for his work. Rob kickoff, with the track that we're talking about, the best artist named after a hamburger sod, Adam, Rob run with it, play a little Cody Fry. This is thinking about you. My Cody Fry.

Man put on headphones, everybody.

yep.

I'm a better dancer with Cody Fry on. We all are

floating around. Yes. I got a tendency to move to even fucking on that

back now.

I just got it.

You got it. All right. You got it. All right. Beautiful underneath. Stay

upstairs

upstairs.

Come on. Goodness. This song. And we've talked about this before in one of our sort of between season playlist, my life episodes, which I know those don't get as many listens, not as many folks are, are, are hip to those yet. But this song, first of all, from the 2021 album pictures of mountains, which I said previously was my album of the year for, for 2021.

And I, and I told Cody in the interview and this, this holds true. This album was my favorite album since Brandon flower's album. The desired effect, which came out in 2016, I think maybe 2015, actually it, my favorite album since then, and one of my favorite albums of the last decade, it's been a long time.

These kinds of albums that I just listened to over and over and over again, front to back are so few and far between now this album just kicks all kinds of tail and goes all kinds of different places. Emotionally. We're going to play you some more of his stuff, and you're going to hear kind of the range of what Cody Fry does and is capable of.

But this song, dude, just grooves for days. It just screws so deep, you know? And I've said before that we're living in, I feel like every time I say, yeah, I'm doing the yet from the south, w I've said before, we're living in like a golden age of white boy funk, you know, we've got, we've got your, your you know, your Cory Wongs of the world and fearless fliers and volt Peck and, and you know, all that stuff.

And, and Cody Fry in this context just sits right in perfectly, you know, in that sort of groove. He's so good. He's got such great feel, you know, and then the songs are great on top of it. Like some guys can play, some guys can groove, some guys can produce and some guys can write great songs. Cody is a five tool player.

You know what I mean? He does it. He does it all. If I can steal that baseball term. It's so. This album, pictures of mountains. I can't recommend it highly enough. What's, what's funny about him. If you go on Spotify, you said we're starting the modern mint of pop month. And so typically when we talk about a song, I talk about where it charted on billboard, the awards at one blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I should mention Cody was nominated for a Grammy this year. This is how current, you know what I mean? We talked to a lot of people who are who were like popular in previous decades and sort of are even up to, you might call them legacy artists, you know, that kind of thing. And we've talked to people who were at one point nominated for Grammys, you know, that kind of, yeah, great.

Any more modern man of pop. This is as modern as it's going to get. Literally the epitome of modern menopause is Cody Fry. So if you, if you go on his Spotify, though, what you see if you go to his, his most popular songs, The feel is not what we just listened to. Yeah. We're going to it's it's into the other end of what he does super duper well, and it really showcases his range as a rider, as a ranger, as a player.

Typically it was, as we introduce a song, I talk about billboard charting things and, and, you know awards won and, and that kind of stuff. But for the modern man of pop month, I'm going to go with Spotify stats because not all these guys get, have taken over the billboard charts in the way that many of the songs that we have covered have done.

And in modern arrows, Spotify is that's man, that's a trophy and its own. Actually it is, it is one of the markers that show an artist to be success. It's sort of the, what do you call like the proof of concept? You know what I mean? Can be your Spotify numbers or your Spotify falling. So just to give you an idea where we are with Cody Fry, this and these numbers are by no means of value, judgment or anything like that.

Just kind of to let you know where we're, where we are with these guys. Cody has 2 million, 866, 443 monthly listeners on Spotify. So that's, there's a lot of listening, almost 3 million and, and, and rising. That was as of yesterday, before, you know, before we recorded this episode. So it's probably more by now, I'm sure, but.

That is his, that's just people who listened to him every month on Spotify after all that Grammy talk. That's right. So after and that's not, not counting your other streaming platforms, I'm just going with Spotify kind of as the marker. So he has 164,339 followers on Spotify. And his top track is actually, I hear a symphony from the album flying which has over 84, almost 85 million listens on Spotify.

And that song is significant because it shows the power in the modern music world of Tik TOK. I hear a symphony just took off on Tik TOK last year, and code is going to talk about it in the interview and became, you know, it gets used in these sort of Tik TOK. I guess you would call them a meme, really these, these videos that people like recreate and do their own versions of, and they use, I hear a symphony in it.

Get you all these plays on Tik TOK and then drives people to go, oh, I want that song. So they go to Spotify and they pull the, pull the song in. And so that, that song, as we record is sitting at almost 85 million listens just for, I hear a symphony alone, his other most popular, the top five on Spotify.

Would be his Grammy nominated arrangement of Eleanor Rigby the Beatles classic, you know what I mean? Which is a monster song to begin with. And then he took it and did this incredible arrangement with a virtual choir and, and all this stuff, which has over 28 million listens his track underground from his latest project.

He's got one. So at the time we talked to him pictures of mountains with his latest. He has since done this album called symphony sessions, which has Eleanor Rigby underground. It's got a version of sailboat with Ben rector which is awesome. So good. The whole album is so good. But underground has this.

I'm just going to play you a minute of it and you can hear kind of this this other side of him. So this is the symphony sessions versions, where he went in. He does a ton of. Really, really, really great plugin strings and symphony stuff. You know what I mean, done by done with Mitty and samples and all this kind of stuff, but this is with a live orchestra, a recorded, I believe at ocean way in a now.

This track is underground, but it plays track. One is called caves and it's like a minute and 45 seconds, which basically plays as a prelude to this track underground. Okay. So I highly recommend cranking your volume all the way up and listening to them back to back. Okay. Listen to Cades and underground.

Back-to-back here's how underground starts.

This is all live him standing in front of the symphony. His performance is so flawless

through my voice into the dock. So this is kind of the other side, syrupy. Sweet, emotional. Okay, so you get this, but listen to how this thing builds, dude, I'm going to, I'm going to take it to the third verse of this. And basically the story is I woke up under ground. I can't see any light. I'm trying to feel my way out to see if I can get out of the darkness.

And then the chorus is. He hears in the background.

Okay. That's intentional. That's not just a melody. This is what he's hearing in the distance. He's hearing this thing, but he can't can't see anything. So you get into the third verse and you realize little in this place and mind running lengthwise down the hall, he's found metal.

He's like, okay, I feel this metal thing and it's kind of going down. So he's following this metal and then it broke through the black. I was standing on a track. Oh crap. That little light began to grow. There was no

okay. So he's got hit by a train. Yeah. There's metaphor going on. Okay. But, so what's beautiful is you can watch this happen. He's got this, this, the tracking sessions on YouTube and you can go watch it and it's, you can see when they, when they release the last note, you can feel the room, everybody. That was it.

That was, that take was perfect. Yes. Like just chills, you know what I'm saying? And then, and then you, you immediately follow him into the control room where he's kind of overcome with emotion. You know what I mean? It's just fantastic. Cannot recommend enough. So that is sort of, if, if thinking about you is the north pole of Cody Fry, that's the south pole, right.

And he's got sort of everything in between, but the, but the, the musicianship, the songwriting, the performance is always just hot. So let's go back for a minute to thinking about you now that we've kind of introduced you if you don't know Cody's music yet, now that we've kind of done a proper introduction let's listen back to thinking about you and, and point out some things that we.

First the opening piano riff jazz heaven, right? With this little pentatonic flourish here into this gorgeous chord, boom, that's us tasty as the day as long, right? I mean, that is just absolute. You want to get me hype at any given moment? Play me the introduction to this song. You know what I mean? Okay.

I wanna, I wanna throw something at you here at the end of this prelude. I'm going to call this the prelude because what we get is this little like playful thing at the beginning, and then at the, yup. We get the groove that drops. Right. And that's sort of the, the real intro that feels like the rest of the, you know, feels like the rest of the song.

Okay. But I want you to listen very closely to the last little bit of this prelude and tell me what other song it takes you to mentally.

Dude.

okay. I'm going to play you just a little bit of something else and see if you see, if you, if you smell what I'm standing in here, if all y'all are yelling at me, I had to search, like I had to search my memory to go. I know this is tugging at me from some other songs. What does this give me the feeling of.

Okay. You know where we are.

This is the girl is mine by Michael Jackson with Paul McCartney. And I want you to listen to the end of this phrase and see if it pulls to you the same way, who is best.

Right. Do you feel that, or am I making that up? I'm not saying it's purposeful or anything like that. It just hits me the same. It gives me the same feeling that that gives me. Okay. I would've never landed there because in my mind, those are two complete genre of songs. Like. The stylistically, but I get what you're I kind of get like, your chest makes me feel that it just makes me feel the same, just a quicker, you know what I mean?

And then of course, come on,

come on now, like that synth, you know what I mean? Like a chubby sip.

We're going to get into this verse. How simple is this verse? Melody? Listen.

Oh, here, it just floating around. There's been two notes songs so far. I got, it's easy to move to even fucking on that.

It's literally centered around one note until that last line loon, but right. It's and that he's a little flourishing to them and him. And then you know what I mean? And then he's got the data, right? It's got the like here. Okay. Here's a melody, if you need something. And that one note, yeah, just let you know, I can write this melody.

I just didn't have to do without it. Right. But I can serve it up for you if that's what you need. It's just so crazy, dude. He didn't have to do anything extreme and whatever. I left out, melody wise on the verse, I'm going to bounce all over the place. All the chorus. Yes that's right. It's just, and what's great is that note is not even a chord tone.

It's right. So he's, he's in other words, if you're in are we in B-flat minor? Actually we're in, we're in the key of a flat key signature of a flat. Okay. Because we have beef that D flat major now is the four, right. And the F Monica. Okay. That's kind of what we're doing. So it's. The B flat he's hitting is a six over that D flat chord.

Right. But it's the two of the key is the two of the key. So it's like, it's not even really in those chords because it's going the, the, you know, the chords are kind of moving all over the place, but we're essentially doing is going four to a six. And he's singing this note over both of them. That's not a chord tone.

Quote-unquote of either one of those chords and at six is monitor for you guys that, or it'd be an F manner, right? Yeah. I'm sorry. Yes. The six chord. Yes. And so he singing, that's the, it's the six of the four chord that he's singing 1, 3, 5, 6, right. Or the 13 you would say, and then it's the 11 or the.

Of the six chord. So you've got Rob did that on his keyboard phone. So if you're in F minor, you're going 1, 2, 3, 4, such a singles. That's the no he's thinking. So it's not like, he's he, in other words, he's not servicing the chords super on the nose. Right? It's this. So he's like, I just picked this one note and it's going to work over these chords and it adds color to each chord.

It neither, it doesn't resolve yet anywhere. It's kind of like, it's just moving, you know what I mean? And so th th the groove is just go in and he's like, I'm going to sing this note. You know what I mean? It's, he's got you hooked. And then, and then you get the, the, the, the cool unison slow down, slow down, slow down, which if you're a.

So that's, if you're counting, if you're playing along at home, that's kind of an F minor thing, right? So it's F C E flat, flat,

flat, flat. Okay.

With my limited piano single octave piano on my phone, that's all like, this is the best I can do for you. And then, like, it just goes back up, you know, with a kind of a lazy London's got on it. You know, I love that. And then the, and then the chorus goes back to that same field as the verse bone.

just come on musically. This song is just insane. Right? And we talked to them a little bit about sort of the inspiration for it. He mentions anomaly who, if you like this feel, you should definitely go search out anomaly. That's a N O M a L I E not spelled with a Y like the normal word anomaly. But if you like this kind of field in this.

Instrumentation and groove and whatever you should definitely go check out anomaly as well. Cause you will be very satisfied. Do you wanna meet the band that played on it? Let's talk about a minute. It's dumping me. Hey mama. Let's meet the man.

all right. Let's make the band that played on this track. Cody. Did a lot of it himself. So couple spots where there are one of those monsters that we all fear make. The band section will be really short. So on base with the exception of Cody on bass, on the chorus Kevin MacIntire, I can't pick up the tone difference unless separated, if that makes sense.

So there's little places where you can hear him separated that he has online and such. So you can hear it a little bit. I can't tell it it's fits great. Also Kevin, that is also based on the Ben rector magic album, which I love it. Oh man. Love it so much. And he's done some recent stuff with Dave because we got to see him play with Dave Barnes at the Ryman rockets and white pants.

A while back bouncy stage presence. My wife loved watching him play. I was fortunate to get this. I was wondering where to go. Like my wife was wife that loved watching him play. I was fortunate enough to get, I saw him with Ben rector before the youth. A soccer game at the, at the bar, the Titans play here in Nashville.

And I got talked to him for a while. Super nice guy, super kind. And you always like it when the people that you watch and admire are kind. So con got great bass player, Kevin MacIntire on drums, Steve gold plays I don't know if it's pronounced Ryzen arisen drums, you know, it's R I S E N I mean it sure sounds like shit.

It reads like it should be written, but I don't know. It could be pasty symbols, cannabis, snakes. I've been sorry. I've been, I've been, we've been corrected by a listener on our pronunciation of it's Pisces. Is it pasty? They said, make sure next time this comes up. It's pasty symbols and it's Moke synthesizers, not mood, not mood Robert.

Yeah, shut up. Well, Hey, we learned the more, you know, a star flight at this point, that message was sent to me so long ago that I've forgotten who you are and I can't give you credit, but thank you you for clearing that up, I'm probably going to pronounce it wrong each time. And then Rob will correct. Just cause it's it's on autopilot, but thank you for that.

Check out. I choose you by Sarah Barelas it's money. He puts a splash on his snare. It's so cool. So every time he hits his snare, he's got the splash with it. So cool shaker in his right hand playing while it's really cool. Tremors are amazing. The coordination to be a great drummer is, is magical.

So check out Steve on that. So Steve, Kevin and Cody, and there's your meet the band sector. Yeah, I mean, that's it. So he's so talented. Cody's doing all these synths guitars, man, and I'm playing different guitars, a tele, a Strat there's like multiple guitars that he plays throughout this track. And I'm pretty sure, even at the beginning of the, even at the beginning of the.

I'm pretty sure part of the loop that you're hearing is just him making sounds with his mouth. I think it's stuff that you're hearing in the off beats that I think that's literally just him doing that in microphone. He's just one of these minds that just this stuff just comes out of him. You know it, and you know, a lot of times you'll have somebody when they're, when they're doing a, if they have a song and they're going to add strings to it or whatever, then you, you call in a ranger, you hire an arranger and they write the string charts and then they, you know, have them recorded.

Cody's doing all this himself. I want to be clear. This is not like you know, this, this version of Eleanor Rigby, which I'm going to play you here in just a second. You know, he didn't just commission this arrangement. Right. And it's, and it got nominated for Grammy. He broke this arrangement and, and tracked it all and blah, blah, blah.

And had hundreds of people send him in parts to form this virtual choir, which I'm so mad at myself that I didn't get in on a Grammy. Yeah. You know, you know, so I, I just, w I just got lazy and just didn't submit it. And so, whatever, whatever so mad about that forever. But yeah, let's listen while we're, while we're on it, too.

The, the Grammy song Elena.

Kind of a different take, not entirely, you know what I mean? But it's got some different spots,

a couple of different chords here and there that then you might be used to hearing one spot in particular. I'm thinking of

what I love about this is it's got this sort of cinematic intro, right? It would, you would see like a chart off Winkler production in cooperation with Disney studios. And then the first time you hear vocals, come in, it's this overwhelming grand thing,

little motif there. And that was all the lonely people.

It's amazing. Yeah.

I mean, it literally is like he's setting up for a movie.

and all right. Takes up in the church where the wedding has been

DRI. I mean, it's just, it's just so dramatic. It's so great. That's awesome. His song, I hear a symphony off the flying album, which is the, what was your first Cody Fry album? It wasn't flying. Yeah, it was fine. And I listened, I probably listened to go more than any there for awhile. Love that that was in my top songs played for last year.

The way it landed, even though it's older. I, I listened to, I still listened to that album more than pictures of mountains. I love it. Flying great album. And that was the first, first exposure I had to Cody, because I'm going to, I'm going to S this is going to come off like a big time thing that I'm trying to say here.

And whatever, maybe it is. But I, I I'm friends with the guy who mastered the flying album. His name is Nathan Dantzler. My band used to worked with him way back in the day. He spent countless hours and got paid literally less than pennies to work on a record. It mostly out of the kindness of his heart.

But so he posted after he mastered it, he's like, this was an incredible, you know, thing to get to work on, you know, blah, blah, blah. So I went and checked it out and went holy, you know what I mean? Like, wow. And so it, it, if you, if you love Cody's stuff, now, make sure you go back because so off the, off the flying album I hear a symphony is the song that blew up on, on Tik TOK and It, it pushed that song's presence on Spotify and streaming platforms into the number two spot on the U S viral 50 chart, and top 10 on the global viral 50 chart, just from Tik TOK exposure.

Like it's a whole different world right now. You know what I mean? But a couple of noteworthy tracks on that one, I love go, as you said, let's put a little bit of go.

See drive on there with you right next to me. How would you characterize his voice? What does this voice feel like to you? When we get up high, look down jello

that song could work in pop music. That song could work. Modern country, you know, I mean that could be a country smash. I think my, probably my favorite song on that one is better track to Corey Corey on guitar and denim. Anyway. So four more pop fives. The great thing about Cody is he gives you this great pop stuff, funky stuff, and then he gives you the, the, the, you know, the syrupy sweet stuff and these fantastic arrangements.

I want to highlight just a little bit more of the pictures of mountains album, because I love it so much. It's going to play a couple of clips you into some things. Let's do photograph is one of his top songs on Spotify. Let's play a little as a photograph.

It's the evening. And I'll tell you how to watch this video. I think we've talked about like the video, the way it's captured is perfect with this time before the nurse melody is just everything's cold. He was sitting on the chair. I think maybe I can't say this for absolute certain, but this song, I think maybe has my favorite moment of the entire album.

And that's saying a lot, which is, which is I need some way to prove that this was real, the middle section of this song. I would make this it's so full of emotion.

When I find some magic food to take a photograph live inside.

Just, just shoot me. I can't handle all the motion on the track. You know what I mean? It's it. Let me play this middle.

I need some way to prove that this was real. That line just destroys.

Come on, bro. Just the emotions are overwhelming. And so then you get all that stuff. London, I just love the song London. Then track seven has this beautiful. It's like a combo song. Love a good combo song, right? Some like when you have a title of a song that is one word slash another word, I know I'm going to love it.

It's almost guaranteed that I'm going to love it. Where like you're, you're like spin doctors, shinbone alley slash hard to exist. That kind of thing is immediately appealing to me. So you get this, you get this wonder anymore slash dunes wonder anymore is dope. Like this song feels amazing. You hear it at first and you go, okay, I know where we are here.

Right? It's got this piano thing. This makes sense. And then it just takes off.

Oh, what are we doing? Oh, I did not predict this yet. Right. And then it goes even farther, like, oh, I can dance to this. I did not expect to be able to dance to the song.

And even that, just the emotion of that, like haven't, we all felt this, you know,

now we're going next level

so then we get this song that's just dope to begin with. Right. And then once this song fades, we get this incredible instrumental section he takes off on this piano, like kind of dissonant.

We get this

monster.

Okay. It's an outro, right? No, not at

all. The beat's not finished. We're going somewhere still.

So good. Oh my gosh. You just can't. I mean, I just take that hard to say. I'm sorry. And to get away exactly. Oh, my God. It's modern day Chicago folks. It is wonderful, man. That's so, anyway, this, this album dude, skipping stones and fireflies. Just give me a break, the gamut of feelings that you will feel while listening to this album.

I don't think it can be overstated. Cody Fry will give you feeling. If you hear nothing else. That we've said today. Just if you want to feel some feelings, fail, failing, listen to Cody Friday. Okay. So obviously Rob is the knowledge of all things, this album and all things, Cody, Fry, but let's see how well he does on stump.

The genius played the jingle and I'll tell it, we're going to do stump the genius fry edition. Here we go. It's one thing that Rob knows, it's Pictures of mountains, Cody Fry and French fries. We're talking about starch. I'm about to ace this.

Remember when they were named freedom fries for a little bit. Come on. That's kind of a fail anyway. Okay. Okay. I was going to do all true false, and then I was like, nah, let's just kind of mix it up a little bit. Okay. Here we go. Number one, Thomas Jefferson brought fries to America. True or false. Oh, wow.

There, I thought you were like, who's got the curly fries. I'm going to be like, Arby's I'm going to say Thomas Jefferson known Francophile. I'm going to say yes and ring his chef and slave at the time James Hemings made them for him. And then they returned when they returned from France. He's like, dude, he's like, let's make those French fries bring them to America.

So there we go. Thomas Jefferson, one for one number two, McDonald's sells one third of all French fries, sales in north America. True or false almost say, yeah, that is true. 7% of all potatoes in the U S end up being McDonald's French fries. Wow. That is crazy. One third of all French fry sales. And McDonald's so good.

Yeah. So which of these is not found in French fries, vitamin a vitamin B6, vitamin C magnesium iron. And give them to you again, vitamin a vitamin B6, vitamin C magnesium and iron. Trying to think of what I feel after I eat French fries, you know, vitamin wise I'm going to say. Okay. Hmm. Wow. I okay. The temptation is to say vitamin C, you think vitamin C you think citrus, right?

Ego oranges. And you go, surely that's not in fries. I'm going to go a different direction though. I'm going to say iron. Okay. Vitamin a so healthier than you think. Some French fries you get, you get your basics, your vitamin C magnesium and iron. Just go out there and grab it somewhere. It feels so good to go get French fries, get some healthy feeling good.

It's comfort food. Cause it's really full of vitamins, which made I'm so full of vitamins who made the first French fry vending machine. Oh, okay. There was a French fry, a vending machine. Was it made in China, Australia or Amsterdam? I was going to assume Japan just because that sounds like such a Japanese thing to do.

China, Australia or Amsterdam or Australia or. Just wild. Guess I'm going to go Amsterdam Australia. Wow. Since 1982, they've had something called Mr. French fry. That's a vending machine where you can get French fries. Sign me up. I sold right. Let's go to us. Shall I become a Mr. French fry vendor, David steri.

What? We're there for real and be like, Hey man, send us the bank. Where can we get a sponsorship with Mr. Fringe? Yeah. Do you know anyone in the French fry industry? I'm ready to become a French fry because our listener that likes the Australia. Who was it? The, that suggested. Oh Gary Rocklin, Gary Rocklin.

Have you ever had anything from Mr. French friends, right? Yes. Let us know Gary, Gary, let us know if that's real or if this is all falsified on the internet, number five, which has more fat in fries. Okay. Okay. Finger cut fries or thinner cut fries, which has more fat. Okay. So I would say. Like per ounce, right?

Like if you weighed them out, I would say there's less potato and more crust in a thinner crust, in a thinner fry. So I'm going to say thin fry. It is thicker because of the machinists inside. There is more fat in there. So there I was thinking of him, came out the gate color for too was killing the frog game.

And then a man, we took a turn. I kept it all true. False. And you would have ran the no, no, no. I like to be challenged still, always good ramp guys. You're going to love this interview. Super props to, to a county for hanging out with a lot of fun. Honestly, I don't know if we're going to be able to leave this in the interview or not.

So I'm just going to say it. And then if it li, if it stays in there, then you get to hear it. But I'm just not sure if I'm going to have to edit around it or not. But Cody got a door delivered to his house while we were mid interview that wasn't his, like, he didn't order a door, but while we were, while we were talking with him, you may hear it.

And you may not. Somebody just shows up at his door with a door and they're like, here's your door? He's like, I didn't order a door. And they're like, well, here it is. It came to you. And so hopefully I can find a way to leave that in. And it makes sense, but I just want to let you know, you may hear Cody being like somebody just tried to give me a door.

I don't know what happened. Yeah, by the way, I will. I got a question for you at the end. All right. We're going to talk to Cody Fry. We'll be back at the end to tuck you in, but in the meantime, stop what you're doing right now. Okay. I don't care if you're performing CPR on somebody, put them down. They can wait.

They can wait. They can, eh, yeah, no, I'm going to stand by it. They can wait. Stop. What you're doing right now. Go on social media is and follow us everywhere. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, all at Great Song pod. You can be part of the Facebook group, great songs and the great people who love them greatly. Or if you want to go the extra mile and be part of supporting a show, helping us to produce the show, you can join us on Patrion and for just a few bucks a month, you can help us to do more and go further and be better with the show.

And we can in turn, say thank you by giving you things like bonus shows, early release, extended shows and all kinds of other ways that we can find to say, thank you. So if you want. Part of the extra mile club. That's not really a thing, but you can be part of the Patrion producers. How about that@patrion.com slash Great Song pod.

We're going to go talk to Cody Fry. We'll see you again in just a second. This is the Great Song Podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, as promised we are here with the multitalented Cody Fry. Thank you so much for joining us today. Cody on the Great Song Podcast. Real pleasure to have you. I'm so glad to be here.

I, I mentioned casually that I've really just sort of been bingeing, the new record pictures of mountains. I've listened to. A whole bunch of times. And it's one of those that, like, it's rare for me to find a full album. First of all, J.P. and I are both album guys. Like we listen, start to finish.

And so till the day I die, I will beg artists to make good full albums. And so to find an album that my wife and I will both listen to front, to back on a road trip or whatever is really rare. There's been like two in the last 10 years. And pictures of mountains is one of them. The others would be Brandon Flowers, the desired effect.

And so these, these are our now you've made it to our official Roadtrip album playlist. So you know, it's love that man, such a, such a great record. And we're gonna focus our episode on thinking about you, but we're going to talk about, you know, kind of, kind of the whole, you know, whole things about the album.

And literally right before, right before we start recording J.P. is like, you know, he's got like a 20 minute break down to thinking about you on YouTube, which is wonderful, which I'll watch their rubs. Like what? Cause. I wonder what chord, like you had a question about the court. I was like, well, I think it's this.

Yeah, sure. It's a D flat major nine. Oh yeah, we could, we can cover it off. So let's, let's start with this. My literal first thing, I'm just, I was just listening to a bunch of music, trying to come up with some, you know, some good questions to ask you. And the first thing that did that, just my fingers led me to was who in the world made you this way?

What was the, what was the musical diet that you grew up? We have a lot of issues and we just need to figure out where did they come from? No, that's a great question, man. I think like You know, I'd be remissed. If I didn't say that my father is a musician, he's an orchestral composer. And when I was a kid, he was a jingle writer.

And so I kind of grew up with the whole kind of studio in the house thing. And because he was a jingle writer he was always having to do things of different styles, right. So like for McDonald's he needed like a kind of a kid's cartoon vibe. And then for a banking company he'd needed like a very serious classical vibe, you know?

And so, and, and he was so excited about all these different types of music all the time that I never really developed into like a. Like an actual genre that you could, you know, point to. Like, that's what I love to do. It's just like, I, my, my father taught me how to appreciate all sorts of different types of music.

And so like, it's, I think that kind of is what comes across, you know, I just can't like pick a lane and that's his fault and my fault now. So thanks dad. That's awesome though. That, that really helps me explain because I, you know, I listened to you know, listen through an album. You definitely get. I hear sort of two Cody's, you know and obviously it's all, it's all you, but that, but I definitely hear different shades.

Right. But there are some that are more obvious than others. You've got, you know, you're really funky stuff. You know, like this, or like better off the flying album, you know and good heavens dunes off of figures of mountains. Oh man. But like but then you get, you know, then you get skipping stones and fireflies and you know what I mean, stuff like that, that is just really photograph.

Yeah. And even pictures of mountains, London, you know, the, the list goes on. Is that something you intentionally like. Shoot, literally someone just showed up at my door. Really want to answer this question of so, sorry, I'll be right back. You're good, man.

Okay. You guys, I'm sorry. It's all good. That wasn't even the person that I needed to let in. I go to the front door and there's just a guy with like a full size door. Just like sitting there, like you were to this door. I was like, I don't think so. And so I'm like talking to this guy and he's like, wait a sec.

So this is, we got the address here. This door is for you. And I'm like, we don't need, I didn't order a door. We have all of our doors. Like I think I would know if we were missing a door. I just had like the weirdest interaction with this guy. W we paid him to do that. We're like, that'll be our way out if it, if, if the interview's bombing, we'll just send the door guy.

Yup. This is our door guy. Don't mind him. Okay. So we're I was asking about it. Is it something that sort of a duality or you know, I don't want to oversimplify it, but that sort of fluidity in your style, is that something you you're like I'm, I'm intentional about this or is it just in a natural extension?

I don't think it's like intentional as much as it is that my problem is that I just get bored really easily. And so I think if somebody was like, yeah, man, we need an album of 12 songs from you. They're all kind of the same. I would just be like, well, I'm going to go into banking or something because that just like does not sound enjoyable to me.

I, you know, I heard Jack White say one time, he was just like, Stop like trying to make the song something you want it to be and just figure out what the song itself wants itself to be and just make it that. And so for me, I'm like, if I write like a 1950s jazz thing, I'm just like, why fight? That just like lean into it and have a good time making that.

And so I think it's less of like an intentional, like I want to be eclectic and more of just like, I don't really think I could do it any other way. So yeah. I'm Cheryl, I'm sure a lot of people discovered you on American idol. So I, you know, I was watching back through it and I know on somewhere over the rainbow, I thought where you'll find would be the high note.

And then you like took me into the stratosphere. So I did not see that coming. If you get to tour with either you open or they opened for you, Keith Jayla or Harry, who do you pick? Which who's your pick? Oh, Harry Connick. Hey Rob. I mean, I love Keith and J-Lo, but I think, you know, Harry is just, he's such a musical.

Person. He just, you can just feel it when you talk to him. And so, and I also just think like his fans, my fans, we could probably have some stuff to talk about. So I think that would probably be super enjoyable. Also if you've, if you've never seen Harry Connick like play the piano for real. He's crazy.

Yeah. Well, one of my favorite clips of him is that thing where he was playing on like a morning show or something, you know, and people were clapping off beat. Have you seen this? They're clapping on one and three instead of two. And he switched, he switches, he throws in a measure of five so that it makes their clapping.

Right. Brilliant. Okay, so, so tell us about thinking about you we're, we're focusing on that one this week. Tell us about the song, how just sort of start to finish what the inspiration was, you know, the process, all that good stuff. Then I'm going to ask you about some chords. Yeah. Yeah. Oh man. I hope I got my chords.

Right. So a lot of my music comes from like. You know, I think a lot of artists are like this. I listen to music as much as I can. And like, I'll hear something and just go like, wow, that's really cool. And sounds super fun. And so that happened for me with this record by anomaly the artist, if you've never checked him out, he's incredible monster.

And just like his sense of like the way he uses chords and bass notes shifting underneath the chords really in a unique way. And just like the sound of like the sense and the funkiness of, I was just like, man, that just sounds like too much fun for me not to at least try. And so I kinda like just one day I kind of was sitting around and playing with that prophet synth and like just kind of came up with that thing and put some drums over it.

And then it just kind of became like what it was. And for me, I was in this stage where I had written a bunch of like, You know, slower ballads and kind of like straight ahead, pop things like Vegas and like, you know, stuff like that was more geared towards like Spotify single world. And so for me, I wanted to like, have like a refresh where I could just like, kind of let loose a little bit and just say like, all right, you know what?

Like I can do more than just like write four chord pop tunes. Like let's, let's do something crazy. Let me just like flex all the muscles I got from about that fricking Belmont college degree. And just like, let's go, all right. I paid so much money for all these jazz chops. Let's use them on. Yeah. I love that you showcase your keyboard skills, but also you play three different guitars.

Like you're playing in a Strat and so three different guitars in there too. I thought that was, I love that video where you explain everything you do with the chromaticism and pop music and the little boy alter the little alter boy and the robot. There's like so much in that. Yeah, it's super fun to produce stuff like that because, you know, you can just kind of try wacky stuff and see what sticks to the wall, you know?

And I also should mention Steve Gould, drums and Kevin MacIntire on bass, just putting on PhD level clinics, you know, it's really, so you guys don't know who Steve gold is. He he's on Archie's you buy Sarah Barelas it's my and Kevin, we saw Kevin this weekend cause we saw Dave Barnes. We went and saw Dave and he played with, he did rocking those white pants.

My wife loves the stage presence, thought he was so cool. But talk, talk about the bass part on this track because you play a little bit of bass in it because you played the demo. Right. And you're in chorus. So talk a little bit about that. That's so cool. So I, you know, I'm a little bit of a control freak, and so I like to just.

Demo out everything as much as possible because you know, the goal for me is to make the instrumentalists that I'm hire that I'm hiring to give them the best shot, to do their best work. And sometimes I think like if you leave things to open the instrumentals, have a hard time honing in on what the end goal is.

And so it helps for me to say like, this is where we're at. This is what we're after. So like focus your energy here. And then like, here are the spots where you can really step out and do something cool. And boy, did Kevin ever do that? But yeah, I did play a bass, you know, on the whole song initially.

And I liked it. I thought it was fine. But I thought it really could use somebody who could really take particularly the verses into like a, a more grounded place. And. If I didn't, I don't think I did this in the, behind the scenes video, but if you heard the demo versus versus the, versus that wow.

Too many uses of the word versus yeah. If you hear those back to back mine versus what Kevin played on the verses, it's so much funkier with what Kevin did. I mean, he just, he just brought it, man. It's so good. I can't tell the tonal differences until you isolated them. Like they say, they get lost in the mix.

It's that's awesome. Well, it is based after all. No, but you can't really hear it anyway. So especially with. Why is the, is, is one of the most irritating things about making music? The fact that like people just walk around and listen to it on their phones, up in the air, like, you know, what's amazing, man is I've come to the terms with that.

And I do mix tweaks on my phone speaker. Now I like when I get mixes back from engineers, I'm like, how does this sound through my speakerphone? Cause that's like people experience stuff. Yeah. And so I think like, man, you know, it's a bummer. Cause like I, you know, I want everybody to have a high five system and experience what things like really sound like for real.

But at the same time, you've got to meet people where they're at man and make sure that it's crushing no matter where they're listening to it, man. That's wild. What a weird thing to have to think about, you know, you think about like, I don't know, Sinatra or somebody like having to think about these little people are going to care on these little micro speakers everywhere.

You know, he'd be like, get away, get out of here with that. Just so strange. Ah, okay. I do want to ask you about, about just the chords on the chorus that we're getting on that boom up. Okay. Because like I've got a really good ear. I can't pick those chords out. I just, I just couldn't do it. So I need to know for my own personal edification, what those chords are.

Oh man. I wish I had like piano. I could play right in front of me basically. It's just, you know, a D flat major seven to an F minor. That's like the most simplified version of it. But basically the way I wrote it, and this is kind of the way I do a lot of funk stuff, which is, I wrote the baseline first.

So I put the drum group down that I could play over top of it. And then I just came up with a baseline that I thought was cool. And then I just super imposed the chords on top of that. And some of that, it was a lot of trial and error for me. I wanted to capture that sort of like chromaticism, without it being too overbearing.

And so there were some versions where it was like even more kind of like out there and some versions where it was more kind of like inside. And ultimately basically just went with a version that had this one cord where it kind of goes to this like half diminished thing in the middle of walking up to the F minor.

That felt like it gave it enough of like a kind of procure to the side. But it's not, it's not so much that it sort of like overwhelms the general chord structure. The weirdest part about the chord changes is that the base kind of like lands on a B flat, even though the tonality is an F minor, which.

Is not something I would have done if I had been writing it down on paper, if that makes sense, because it just doesn't look right. But it feels right. It feels amazing. And so for me, it's like you know, I was studied composition and all this stuff. And so like when I see that stuff, I'm like, that should not work.

Why does it work? And I don't really know. I mean, like, I can, I can tell you the theory as to what it is, but I don't know why it feels right. If that makes sense. Like, I understand why it works, but I don't know why it feels right. Because it should want to land on that F F you know, in the base. But it doesn't, I mean, and eventually sort of kisses it on the way down, but like, you know, it's, it's a strange thing where it just feels good, but it isn't quite right.

Yeah, definitely. I know. You're you're from Northfield, Illinois, correct? Are you, are you a fan of, are you a Cubs fan bears, fan bulls fan. What's your what's your abs fan? Yes. Used to take the train and watch games at Wrigley. On a pretty regular basis. A lot of my friends would get tickets, you know, like I was never a caddy, but a bunch of my friends were caddies.

And so they would like, the golfers would just be like, Hey, I got season tickets. You want to like go to the game? I can't make tonight. And then I would be like, yes, let's go. Both Braves fans. Oh, I see. But I grew up watching the Cubs cause they were on WGN WGN. That's right. Yeah. Well, I grew up in the age of Sammy Sosa, so that was like, It felt like Pete Cubs to me, although then we won the world series.

I cried. It was incredible. I saw Sosa and McGuire, both hit home, runs the year of their home run race. I saw Sosa hit one out in Atlanta and McGuire and in St. Louis, I've been to every major league baseball park. I'm a big, big one. Are you serious? That's incredible. I mean, what was your, what was your sense of Wrigley?

I feel like it's, I sat in the two hundreds behind home in the shade, which is the smart play. If you want to take it in as much as you want to sit in the outfield or on the rooftops, it's the, it was cool. I enjoyed it. I, I really did. It was good. Good, good job. Good stuff. Baseball, baseball all day. So we have to realize that.

There'll be parts of these, where we just kind of blast things that we love about the artists. So for a minute, I'm going to make your head swell and I'm just going to rapid fire some things that I really love. So just sit there and act like you call it the Great Song Podcast gas up better is amazing with you and Corey Corey's guitar tone is perfect there a percussion keyboard, and then it turns to that beautiful piano bridge.

The second keys riff. It's awesome. Maybe the best four minutes and 54 seconds of October, 2018. Corey's mustache power carries this. And so the way you do your love videos at the sound Emporium is perfect. And then I forgot about, want me back. I love the way that y'all do the video stuff, where y'all face the camera with the guitars, which leads into a question, and then I'm going to rapid fire, some more stuff.

How involved in video production are you? Are you like, this is kind of the idea I want go with it. Or you like give full control to your video crew. Oh man. Great question. So I am very involved, but I must say, first of all, that the most important thing period, is hiring super talented people. And in particular, those videos and the photograph music video, which was worked on by some of the same people there are just like the most talented people of all time.

But in terms of like, I think that there's a difference between like a technical prowess, which is what those guys bring, but then there's like the ideation or the idea making process of like coming up with the concept and coming up with the ideas of what to do in the video. And that is really something I've never been able to hire someone to do yet.

Especially back then, I, you know, we were operating on operating on like shoestring budgets. And so like for me, I'm I was the one that like had to come up with all of the. Fun stuff. So in want me back particular, like I basically had to write like a shot by shot list of like, okay, here's, what's going to be the intro.

Here's what we're going to do. When the guitars come in and we'll do the flying V everybody looks this way. We've got sunglasses, let's put the T-Rex in the control room. We got the horn players playing cards. Like it's that, like, I came up with all those ideas because you know, I'm hiring the video guys for one day to shoot the video.

I'm not hiring them to spend months figuring out running the camera. And so their, their job is super difficult, but my job is to come up with what the heck we're doing. And so, you know, and I think that. If there are any artists listening, I would say like, don't ever let your foot off the gas in that way.

Like, it is my job as the artist to like, make sure that what I like to call, like the story is always being honored because when you hire people that have amazing technical prowess, that's like their thing, they love the lenses, how amazing things look, and that's why you hire them, but it's not their job to make sure that the story is being honest.

Right. It's that's my job. And so I always have to be there to say like, Hey, let's like, bring it back to what the core of this is about, which is, you know, for wanting me back, it was just like fun, which is always want it to just be fun. And for photograph, it was more of like a narrative story thing that I had to make sure I was there saying like, all right, but like, does this really make sense in terms of like what we want the audience to feel in this moment?

Right. I'm sure it perfectly and photograph and correct me if I'm wrong on this, but didn't you have the video in your mind as you were recording it and writing it. I heard that somewhere. Yeah, it's true, but totally. Yeah. It's not something I do like super often, but for whatever reason, like when I was.

Chasing inspiration, writing the song photograph. I just like had such specific images in my mind of like what I wanted the video to be like playing with your hair is captured perfectly. Like that's the moment of the video. It's so, so good. My favorite moment in the video is the beginning of the second chorus.

When the camera finally full pulls back and we see this like frozen scene and then the lights dim, it's like a painting, you know? I mean like that's Dakota Dow and Chris bay, Rudy, the directors that, I mean, you know, I write the narrative, but there are the people who say like, all right, here's how we're going to compose this shot.

And I was just like, could not, it looked like a painting is unbelievable. It looks like a. Yeah, there we go. I love dueling pianos with Jon. McGlaughlin your matchup and going human is perfect. And I've never seen anybody use the left hand to Palm mute the piano. That might be a common thing, but I've never seen anybody do that.

The way you do that when your Palm muting inside the piano. That's so cool. Oh yes. Actually that might've been a Harry Connick trick. Honestly. I might've seen him do that one time. That's awesome. And speaking of Palm mutes, I ha I have to talk about old friends with Ben rector with just the two of them.

I love it so much. I'm so good on that from the cold Lovitt LA studio is SonicWall magic. Did you write and arrange the string arrangement for that for the string parts? Yes. Yes. So part of my weird nerd things that I do all of my own orchestrations for everything. So. Any strings horns you hear on my records is always going to be me.

Did you tell Nico and Kyle to try to look as much as like you as possible their apparel and haircut? Cause the three gods Nico is the percussionist and how you guys look like, you're like, okay, I want you to wear this kind of clothes. Cut your hair this way. It's like three versions of Cody. Did you intentionally do that or was that accident?

That's my prerequisite for all hires. How much do you look like me? If I'm ever sick at a show, can you fill in for me at the front? Yeah, that's great. That's good. You get dizzy watching that video with the circuit? Yeah, that's a good question. That man, honestly, that video from the cold was like the first time I really, for me, you know, I think I spent like $2,500 on the video, all told, which is cheap.

I know, I know. But for me that was like so much money at that time. It was like 2011 or something when that, or 2013. And like, but that was the video for me that really like. I was like, oh man, like video as a medium in music can like really be something cool when it's live and being filmed at the same time.

And so that was, that really was love. Or was there overdose the whole thing? The whole, literally the whole thing so much going on there. Like I was like, there's no way that's a one-take love thing. Well, what we ended up doing is the strings needed a little support during the loud section. And so there's like some Mitty strings that we used underneath because I didn't have enough money to hire 50 people.

So you know, we just, I, I used a little bit of cheating there, but really it's just it's live. That's really what it felt like, oh God, that's crazy. It's my favorite stuff to do. I kind of feel like I know this, but when you're producing at home, when you're working on stuff and even stuff that makes final album how often are you using an acoustic piano versus plug-ins, it's really song dependent.

And in fact, I have never recorded an acoustic piano in my own studio. However, if I could pan the camera, you would be able to see it. But I now have my Yamaha. You three, are you one upright set up right next to me in my studio and it's miked up and ready to go. So that is going to be my piano and future albums.

But like for I'm trying to think like a lot of the stuff I do is key scape, which is the Omnisphere or Spectrasonics plugin. And then just, you know, it depends on if the piano is really important, I'll go and record it somewhere. I use sound important a lot for recording piano and for the album flying tracked with this producer named Chad Copeland, who's in Norman, Oklahoma, and he has an amazing piano set up there.

And so a lot of the real pianos you hear were not actually something I recorded in my studio. However, going forward, that was all changed thinking. That was all man. There was a lot of stuff. I think there was an MKS 20, I think key scape is on there. I think there's the Arturia profit, which is like a profit emulation.

And also my real Juno. You can see, I've got a stack over here and we got piano right here. Great podcast content. I can't see anything so we can do. And they're like, trust us folks. It looks great. We're having a good time. That's all super expensive stuff. As far as you know, producing beats, all this stuff and I stupidly left my vinyl copy of pictures of mountains at home.

So I don't have the credits in front of me. But how much of what we're hearing on this album is you program programming wise, you know, musically speaking how much is you? Let's see pictures of mountains. So. There was a producer who worked on four songs named John Fields, who is incredible. He's a priest out in Minneapolis.

He's he actually did a bunch of. He's, he's been doing basically Ben Rector's whole new album. And then also, like he did a, an album with Dave. He did an album with Jon McGlaughlin. He also kind of like cut his teeth with like Switchfoot and Demi Lovato and the Jonas brothers and stuff. So he's, he's incredible.

And he worked on several of the tune, so on like what I needed on. Our love, like some of the stuff is Jon because he's an absolute genius. But, and if you go back and look on my Instagram, I posted like the credits, you know, like there's like a, you can swipe through all the songs and see who played everything.

Did you do that at the end? Did you put, like, even on your videos, you put like, who plays? And I think it's so important. It's such a bummer that on, on all these platforms now you can't really read the liner notes. I hope that that is changing. Cause I think it's so important to give credit to the people that I would have never known Josh Blaylock, Ron corners, Hank, born, Adam, Mick, you know, all those people and they're great.

And I'm like, that's fantastic, but I would have never known who they were. So thank you for doing that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I've I think it's super important. I think for the most part, with pictures of mountains, most everything is barring like horns slash strings, which I arranged, but yeah, I don't play them, hire people to play them.

But yeah, with a cup with a few exceptions, I mean, you'll see, I've, I'm, I'm pretty intense with my demoing as well. So even if I generally, even if I hire someone to play something, it's just to make what I did. Cause I couldn't quite play it. Right. But it's it's based off of what I would play. Yeah.

So I don't know if that answers your question, but yeah. Perfect. Who would be a like a dream collab for you or a D or a dream project even? Oh man. I think a dream collab w I can answer this in several different ways. I think with the J.P. Moser and Rob Alley, like we know that's a given, right? What does the number one and two number three.

Ah, man. I'm really, I really think Jacob Collier, who is like this wonder kid, a British guy has been nominated and won a bunch of things. So that would be fun. Yeah. Well, I can't play like, he cannot, he is crazy. And so I think just like being able to work with him and I think it would be able to make something fun together.

I also think it'd be really fun to collaborate with like a film composer on track, like Zimmer or something like that. I think it'd be really fun. And then also just like, I really respect dudes, like only Advair or Justin Vernon, because like he, the way he does his music is so different than the way I do my music.

And so it would be so fun to like collaborate and just see like, It's basically like the opposite of my approach kind of it. So just to like, be able to sit in that and go, like, how does this even work for you? You know? And like, learn from that, I think would be a super fun experience. Oh, bunny better does collabs.

Cause he did one with Bruce. Who's our favorite? Like Bruce's on our mountain. He's more serious. Orange Bruce Hornsby is my spirit animal. We just became family right there. Okay. That's serious question that we debate all the time. Are you Bruce and the range, are you Bruce in the noise makers or are you just Bruce solo?

You got to pick a side. So me and Robin, all the time, you have to pick a favorite family member. I just don't know. It's hard to say really. It's just like, when I say he's my spirit animal, it's like, I want to play piano, like plays like that's like don't we all, and it's not all the records is you can't mistake, Bruce man.

It's to me, that's like so much of my inspiration for the way I play is from, from him. If it ever goes south and music, you should go into politics. That's the wonderful way to answer that. Like that was perfect. You said it tastefully and kept all parties happy. And everybody votes for that made me super happy because every time I listened to a piano player who I love and, you know, once I fall in love with somebody stuff, then I listened to him and go, I'll hear something and I'll force myself to go.

I bet he listens to Bruce. And so, but it's good to know when I'm right. You know, it's good to know. That's awesome. Sure. What's your favorite Disney soundtrack? I asked because I knew that was going to be what are question? Yes. Sorry. I got you off. No, no, no, no. I, I just asked because, because you know, so much of your softer side is reminiscent to me of sort of a you know, that, that classic era of soundtrack writing.

It reminds me just a lot of like the most beautiful what's the word I'm looking for? Like sentimental, you know, writing of some of those wonderful animated Disney movies and stuff like that. So I thought maybe you were a Disney guy. Oh, I definitely am. I mean, Alan Menken to me is like top of the top.

Yeah. Yeah, man. I mean, I really think lion king is, is tough to beat. It's just, there's so much energy there. And a man also I was revisiting the other day, the prince of Egypt soundtrack, which is so good. Oh man, we got tuned. Go the distance, man. Wow. Did Elton John do that. And Tim, I mean, prince of Egypt, I think that was Elton John.

I don't know. Yeah. I don't think it was, I I'd have to look it up. I'm I'm not great with names. I know that Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston saying.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to think, man. There's so many good Disney soundtracks, man. It's your lion king is hard to beat. I mean, that's, it's got such a feel, you know, it's so powerful for sure. Hit after hit after hit. Okay. You're you get one song at the Ryman? The entire world is watching one song. It's just you do you go out there?

Acoustic guitar. You go out there. Piano. Do you do ballad? Do you do fun? What's your, you get one shot, one shot, one kill Ryman. World's watching. Oh, I think. The Ryman is such a specific venue. And I think that this would work I'd, I'd definitely pay, play piano because that's where my that's my strong point.

I think I'd probably play, photograph, think it seems like the type of room and the type of audiences that respond well to songs of that nature. W when you finished, do they all stand and applaud or are they all weeping on their knees going weeping? Oddities? I don't know, man. Yeah, that would either way I would be happy.

It was a tough choice for me between the song photograph and the song flying because I loved playing both of them and they both to me like have a similar cerebral quality that I think listeners of that type of venue would really enjoy that would translate the room. Well, I was so bummed. We were supposed to play the Ryman back in March of 2020.

And I didn't know that. How am I getting a sweet, sweet code? Yeah. Yeah, that's a problem. That's a real disappointment. I think I got one more. I need to know, and I, I saw this on your Instagram, but I want our, our listeners who may not follow you on Instagram yet to hear this because I loved it so much.

Can you tell us a little bit about skipping stones and fireflies? I was just.

Buried in the earth.

Wondering if I'd ever leave the ground.

threw me over the lake and dye skin. And for a moment I could fly. Oh first of all, I almost get mad when I listened to it because I'm like, how is this guy making me care this much about a rock, but it's like, you know, it's like, I'm getting emotional over this stone. I don't understand. But tell us a little bit about sort of your philosophy and how it plays in with well, I'll just let you do.

Yeah. So on a lyrical side, it's actually a unique tune for me because I actually wrote the lyrics by themselves with no melody, which I almost never do. That's not how I write music to me. A song comes out all at once. It's melody and lyrics together, but this skipping stones was written more of like as a poem project rather than a song.

And. On a, on the production side, I was listening to Jacob Collier back in whenever I wrote that song. And I just thought, man, I love the way he layers vocals and it's something I'd been wanting to experiment with. And so I just started going it was also unique production thing for me because I'm, I am an arranger at heart.

I love to put things on paper, see them vertically and like do the same. And for skipping steps and fireflies, I improvised all the vocal parts as I was recording. So there's no chart. It's just kind of me layering and feeling like, okay, I need a little more low end here. Ooh. What if we threw like this note in right here and gave it that like augmented five field?

And so like, it was just kind of me kind of shooting from the hip and recorded the whole thing in a couple of hours, probably from 1:00 AM to 3:00 AM. And yeah, I mean, lyrically. You know, I, I think, like I said this in one of my videos, but like, you know, I love the character, Tom Bombadil in the Lord of the rings.

If you've ever read these books, there's this guy who lives in the woods and he's just like, has all these crazy powers. And he just like shows up for a chapter and then is never heard from again. And you're just like, who the heck was that guy? And so to me, like every good piece of art, every album needs, like this enigma that is never really explained.

And so like, that's kinda what skipping stones is for me. Like, it doesn't quite fit in anywhere else. But ultimately it's the it's to me, it's, it's a love story. It's the way that, like, my wife makes me feel, which is just like, Yeah, I was just sitting there and then all of a sudden, this amazing thing happened to me, man.

One day you'll look back and be like, remember when those guys from the Great Song Podcast just kind of popped in. Yeah. We're skipping stones. Two points. Yeah. You well you inspired me a lot with your made it videos. So thanks for that. We're going to keep doing what we do. So I appreciate you trying that out for us.

That's good. And pictures of mountains. I mean, you could pick a line from that whole song, but my favorite is probably I should call my friends, but I read their posts online. I mean, come on. Yeah, I think that's the best from that. The only one that may compete with me on best Cody Fry lyric ever is the, if I make myself a super power, I'd make this moment last for hours.

What's your, what's your karate chop high yah moment. That's the best lyrics I've ever written. What's yours that you're super proud of. Gloat on yourself, where you're like. Okay. Every time I sing this line live, I always look the audience dead in the face because I want people to really feel it. And there's a line in the song flying at the beginning of the second verse.

And the line is. Did faith let me down or did I not have enough? That distinction is tough to me. I just want people to feel that because I'm like, that's, that's what I deal with all the time. I'm just like, I feel like I have this like greater calling and purpose. And if it's what happens, if it's not happening, is it because I just didn't have enough faith or is it because my faith has led me down and like, to me, I just want people to understand that, like it's okay to like, live in that and just be like, yeah, that's really hard.

Yeah. Yeah. When you're looking at our listeners right in the eye, you can do that over the airwaves and you delivered that. There are a lot of lines in the song. Pictures of mountains. I really liked too. You brought up that one that got one was like a. Kind of a statement from me of just like, what have we become?

You know, that's great. Yeah. Well, there's one question. We ask everybody, Cody, this has been a blast. Hope you've had a good time. This is amazing. Super cool. Hanging out with one of our, one of our favorites. We ask everybody this. So you're on tour solo with a band, whatever you go into a gas station.

What is your gas station? Snack, food of choice. And while you're thinking of it, I'll tell you mine. I get a three Musketeers bar when I was growing up. My mom would say, you could have any candy bar you want, and that's the most ounces. They're all the same price. So I'd get a three Musketeers bar. What is your gas station?

Snack food. Literally we were in a bus, I don't know, a couple months ago we stopped at a gas station and I went in and I bought a king size Twix bar, which is just for Twix bars. I don't know why they call it. Well, whatever. No, no, no. It should be called family size. Yeah. And king size Twix. And if I'm feeling really good, maybe I'll I'll get a Coca-Cola Coca-Cola.

That is definitely a southernism Coca-Cola I don't drink Coke, but when I do it's delicious. That's awesome. Thank you so much, honestly, you guys are so kind and I really appreciate you guys having this. This is fun. All right. Thanks so much, man. Have a great rest of the day. This is the Great Song. And that was the incredible mind of Cody Fry.

I do have one question for you. Okay. What's your favorite fast food fry? I have been. Okay. I'm going to go. There's a restaurant that most, a lot of people may not know it's called central park and it's only in east Tennessee. Maybe. I don't know. It could be a chain. There used to be one in there's may still be one in Cleveland.

And I know there's one in Maryville, Tennessee, they're very similar to checkers and rally's fries. So. Dark brown frog. Yeah. Believe so. Y'all will probably know checkers and rally's better, but my favorite is central park. And, and you know, more common probably, you know, the waffle fries from Chick-fil-A would be number two.

Okay. How about you? Mine is going to be checkers slash rallies. I'll find any excuse. I'll go out of my way to I'll bypass other restaurants. And when I want those that's I totally get that because anytime I go through Merriville I try to convince my wife, like, Hey, can we go to central park? And it's a sale.

Like I got to put the sale on because you know, it's a cheap burger, whatnot, but I love it. So. It's delicious. All right. Let us know. What's your fry of choice? What is, you know, we're where are you stopping? What's the, what will you bypass? Maybe a better, more interesting burger for, to go get somebody else's fry like, yeah.

So that's, that's ours. All right. Thank you guys for listening so much as modern men of pop month begins with the delicious Cody Fry. We'll be back next week with another great song and another marvelous modern man, until then I'm Rob J.P. go listen to some music.