I sit down with singer/songwriter Stephen Wilson Jr. to talk about his Dad, his boxing career, his career as a scientist, leaving science for songwriting, and Stephen performs “Stand By Me”, “I’m a Song”, and “Cuckoo”. Follow Stephen YT: https://www.youtube.com/@stephenwilsonjr IG: https://www.instagram.com/stephen.wilson.jr --------------------------------------------------- Sponsors: Tecovas - Get 10% off at https://tecovas.com/BERT when you sign up for email and texts. CookUnity - Go to https://cookunity.com/BERTCAST or enter code BERTCAST before checkout for 50% off your first week. Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at https://shopify.com/bertcast all lowercase. Fabric - Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. Apply today in just minutes at https://meetfabric.com/BERTCAST. --------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE so you never miss a video https://bit.ly/3DC1ICg For all TOUR DATES: http://www.bertbertbert.com For Fully Loaded: https://fullyloadedfestival.com For Merch: https://store.bertbertbert.com YouTube▶ http://www.YouTube.com/user/Akreischer X▶ http://www.Twitter.com/bertkreischer Facebook▶ http://www.Facebook.com/BertKreischer Instagram▶ http://www.Instagram.com/bertkreischer TikTok▶ http://www.TikTok.com/@bertkreischer Text Me▶ https://my.community.com/bertkreischer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the highlights of Stephen's boxing career?
Like, you know, it was just like, all I can do is teach him how to fight because really life is, is that it's just a fight. How many brothers, you have brothers? I have a brother and two sisters. Me and my brother are kind of Irish twins. We're like a year and four or five months apart. So we grew up pretty much the same size. So we were perfect sparring partners.
My brother was an incredible boxer. Like he actually had so much more natural talent than me. And so we started, like my first fight was with my brother. First like sanctioned fight in a ring. We did an exhibition fight with each other. And our, actually our last fight was with each other.
We, we fought each other in the father, son music video and we beat the shit out of each other for like four rounds. It was, it was a good fun.
Uh, but yeah, like that's, you know, me and we had a barn and my dad built a ring in the barn and he'd just take us out there and just, we'd get work and we'd beat the hell out of each other and then go eat dinner and hope it wasn't salty cause it was going to hurt. Yeah.
Oh, wow. You think in lyrics. I hope it wasn't salty because it would hurt. That's a small detail where you're like, I love small details.
Yeah, there was something about that. I would see Nick take a bite. My brother's name is Nicholas. And I'd see him take a bite of mashed potatoes or something. He went and said, I got you, dude. You're hurting because I hurt you. Gosh. Yeah. It was really a beautiful thing. I love my brother so much and the feeling is mutual. Like there was just so much love in that. It's really hard to explain.
And sparring my dad, one of the hardest I've ever been hit in my life is by my dad. Not like in a boxing ring with gloves on, with headgear on. Like I lost time for a few seconds just from a jab when I was a teenager. I just remember like, wow, that's what it's like to get hit by a man.
So like he wanted me to know what it felt like to get hit by a man because I was about to be getting hit by men in a couple of years. And I did. When you start fighting men, that's when it gets real.
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Chapter 2: How did Stephen transition from science to songwriting?
Chapter 3: What influence did Stephen's father have on his life?
But yeah, getting hit by a man.
Yeah, some people just never got a good ass beating. I mean, like from their parents or just from another, like the universe never corrected them and they just were allowed to go uncorrected. Do you follow boxing still? Very much, yeah.
Do you follow MMA at all?
Yeah.
Really?
Because there's a lot of boxing in it and it's an incredible sport. There's a lot. I mean, I feel like boxing is really having a moment within MMA, not just the crossover and all that's happening, but... You see fighters like Sean Strickland, he's won fights strictly with mostly just boxing. There is a lot of... There's a lot of boxing going on.
And there's obviously a lot of jiu-jitsu and judo and especially Muay Thai. But we're seeing a lot of boxing for sure.
Yeah. You know, it's every time I've ever hung out with fighters, there is a calmness about them. And there's a sweetness to them. And there's a directness. It's really an interesting human. Rogan's a perfect example of this, is... there's, they're the last person to get in a fight. They're the last person to look for a fight or instigate a fight. They're calm as shit. And they're very centered.
Like it's like every one of these guys I know. And like you said, the power of a man who knows how to use his hands is very different than the average guy.
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Chapter 4: How does Stephen cope with the loss of his father?
I still believe that Nashville, Tennessee is the best place on planet Earth to learn how to write songs. I'm not going to say the best songs have come out of Nashville. And Nashville gets a lot of grief for some of the music it's put out. But I'm very much a Nashville songwriter. I learned from the greatest in that town.
I moved there because I heard like every song that really moved me as a kid was written in that town. And I had to go where the lions were. And so as a staff writer, I was honored because that's where I wanted to be. Like I was with my peers. I never dreamed I'd be an artist.
But my idea of the top of the mountain was being in those rooms with those writers and learning from the best or working with the best. This whole artist stuff and singing, none of that was supposed to happen. But yeah, like that was everything for me. So just literally being in the rooms with these writers, because those were like my real heroes.
And I learned, I mean, I basically went to songwriting school for years and years and years. And this is, you know, my music is also a byproduct of that. Back to what you said, Leanne, there's a formula without there being a formula. I think, you know... There is a little bit of that, but I really have learned from incredible lyricists, because I write all my lyrics first.
I write usually the whole song lyrically first before I put it to music. But I learned that from many other writers in town that would do that as well. Yeah. You know, it really starts there. And then the music and the style of it comes secondary after the idea and the concept is already established itself. And that's very much a Nashville thing.
And I proudly wear that jacket, that bowling league jacket.
I'm a song. You wrote that first.
Yes, sir.
And then you figured the music that would make it sound right?
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Chapter 5: What role does boxing play in Stephen's songwriting?
Chapter 6: How did Stephen's upbringing shape his artistic journey?
Yes, sir.
And then you figured the music that would make it sound right?
Um,
But that day in particular, I'd never worked with Travis. I'm a big fan of his. And so I was just nervous. And we were just trying to write a song that we could both be very proud of. And that song really just fell out of nowhere. That was a really, really divine appointment. It's a crazy song. Yeah. And we wrote it maybe in two hours, maybe.
The whole song, lyrics and music?
Everything, yeah. And we wrote the lyrics. Travis loves to write lyrics too. So we were very happy together just carving out the lyric. And the music kind of came in parallel path, but also a little bit after the lyrics totally led the show. But it just happened very fast. And yeah, it was, like I said, very much a divine thing.
So when you go into like a songwriting, I hear a little bit about how Nashville works from other people, but they go like, yeah, we went to a songwriting retreat or we sat down to write a song. I worked with another guy or it wasn't a group of guys. And then you hear about that. When you go to write songs, are you just like...
going through your life and you're like, uh, like, cause I mean, comedies, I mean, I'll show you how comedy works. It's very simple. It's, uh, you just see something and you go like, you're like, Oh, that's cool. I'll show, I'll give you a perfect example. Uh, I watched Leanne, someone did a magic trick for Leanne the other day. And I was like, hey, man, they should do magic for Mennonites.
Like, I think that would really blow Mennonites' brains. Because they don't even, they've never seen TV. Like, they'll really, I mean, they believe in the shit they believe in. You could really fucking trick these people.
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Chapter 8: What is Stephen's perspective on authenticity in music?
Thank you, Leanne.
I mean, the music and your voice and the lyrics is just, I'm getting emotional. It's just beautiful. It's beautiful to listen to. So that you share it with the world and it is amazing. It's a gift.
Thank you, Leanne.
I'm glad you're not analyzing dog food. Thank you. Good job.
How cool do you think it would have been to be his lab partner?
Yeah, I had some cool ones. They were a lot cooler than me, actually.
I would love, I was when I met Leanne, my sister, Coddy, we were all sitting there and Leanne got us the table and then got the menus and said, I'll go up and order and you guys stay here. And she got up and walked away. And my sister, Coddy, goes, looks like you just found a great lab partner. I was like, what?
She goes, remember in high school when you're like, I don't want to do any work this semester, but if I pair up with a good lab partner, they'll do all the work for me. I was like, yeah. She goes, you found a great lab partner. She was like, get her pregnant. I was like, really? She was like, no, do not let this one go. She's ordering for us. I bet she pays too. Wow. I love that.
And nothing's changed.
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