Digital Social Hour - Jager Bonham On The Comeback of Pop Punk, Led Zeppelin & Dream Stage | DSH #182

Episode Date: December 10, 2023

On today's episode of the Digital Social Hour, Jager Bonham talks about moving to LA, bringing pop punk back and growing up in the Zeppelin family. BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] APPLY TO BE ON THE POD: https://forms.gle/qXvENTeurx7Xn8Ci9 SPONSORS: Opus Pro: https://www.opus.pro/?via=DSH HelloFresh: https://www.hellofresh.com/50dsh Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Wow, that is tough. That's actually a really good question all right welcome to digital social hour i'm your host sean kelly i'm here with my co-host char Charlie Cavalier, and our guest today, Yager Bonham. How we doing? Good, man. How are you? Good, man. I'm excited to hear your story. Yeah, me too. I got the call to do this, and I just thought, why not? Vegas for eight hours. Eight hours? Yeah. We landed last night, and Vegas is already winning, but, um, gambled some clubs. They got you guys good. Yeah. Uh, yeah.

I'd love to hear your journey though. Like what age did you get into music? Uh, got into music, started making music really young, like always played instruments, always kind of messing about with the guitar and drums. And, uh, I was just cause you know know Pops played but then like at like 15 I remember like freestyle rapping and like thinking I could sing but uh kind of understood it and then met one of my best friends Chris around the age of 15 and me and him would just sit after school every day grab a mic record some music and just kind of went from there and now i've moved out

to la a year ago and went on a us tour so it's kind of like you know you never really see where it's gonna go until it actually happens and it feels like it's on the right track but we just gotta keep working because you're never there until you know i feel that as growing up as the grandson of the the drummer for led zeppelin did you feel like you had to be in the music industry? No, there was a time. There was a time where I definitely felt like the pressure of like not only just being in the industry, but like being a drummer. Because like I would go somewhere and people would be like, oh, do you drum? Or like the comments on YouTube videos would be like, he's not a drummer.

So it's like you definitely feel that pressure coming into it but I think as I aged and like grew to like understand the industry and how there are so many other people out there who have had parents or grandparents in the industry doing their own thing I kind of felt like a lot more comfortable and was like you know what like I'm proud of like you know who my family are and what they did but it's like I'm so happy now that I understand that I can take my own journey and be okay with it. Cause it really doesn't matter what everyone else is thinking. As long as like, you're enjoying every step. I feel that. There's a lot of musicians that for them, it just is a journey. It's for fun.

Yeah. For you, when did it go from just being something that you enjoy doing to maybe this is going to be a job or now I am in the industry as you say. Well, it's still always like the industry as you say well it's still always like every day i wake up and it's just fun for me but i think the uh the craziest thing is is when you realize that money is a thing and you get to that age where you're not like 15 14 anymore you know just going to subway for cookies and hanging out with your friends and you have to like pay bills and i think that's when i like realized that i had to turn it into a job because it's like not only something i'm so

passionate about and love but it's like i can't see myself doing anything else i've had nine to fives i've had you know i worked at gas stations i've worked at a subway i've worked at gyms and it's like i just can't do it right it's like i have in a non-like selfish way i have to be my own boss right because like you know i can't really listen to other people telling me what to do yeah but when you get to the industry you think that's how it's going to be but then it's just right back to people telling you what to do i feel that how is the music different in the uk where you grew up compared to the us uk is uh it definitely was like more of a grunge scene back then but i was also pretty young so it's like i would see it and it was like what i would think

of it is like oh like those kids are punks yeah and then i kind of grew up to becoming one okay so i would see a lot of like the grunge scene like growing up there but nothing too much because i moved over to america about 12 years old so pretty young when i came here got it what were your favorite bands growing up watching i used to love the cure i still do i literally have cure lyrics tattooed on me robert smith is just like one of my biggest inspirations the way he like dressed the way he didn't give a what he would do can i curse on here oh he didn't give a he did not give a it was great like he would just rock lipstick eyeliner

hair it was off the chain and uh also billy idol billy idol's just like you can't compete with that like when we went on tour around the u.s shout out to policy genius today's sponsor the holidays not only allow us to spend time with family, but they are a reminder of how important our responsibility is to protect them. That includes planning to secure their future. Life insurance is an easy way to give your family peace of mind,

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van halen sammy hagar's just you know 75 years old great voice still still you're old school yeah no green day or anything no i liked green day but like growing up i think it was more of like that and then once i like got older it was like the green day the uh all american rejects yeah they were good but they weren't like my top yeah they only had a few bangers like green day paramore paramore i was like a big fan of like also like other genres like i would go listen to country music i would go listen to rap like me and him would freestyle in the cars all the time and you can't see him but that's my friend over there from florida his name is rose we moved here together how good's your freestyle game you might have to throw on a beat here uh we were we

were all right we weren't the best but we would just like enjoy it you know it was the fun yeah but um yeah i would listen to all genres like a lot of people think like you know just because i rock eyeliner and a certain style they're like oh he probably only listens to like emo music and he's sad all the time dude i'll be in i'll be in the car screaming making my way downtown if it's on you know that's a thing that is yeah that's a bang you know you never go wrong with anything never gets old so how often do you think you run into you know getting judged by your looks people try to like categorize you into you know being a descendant of obviously you know getting judged by your looks people try to like categorize you into you know being a descendant of obviously you know famous musicians or try to like keep you

compartmentalized into what they want you to be instead of what you want yourself to be the judgment by the looks is funny because we were just walking around yesterday and there was like some people looking at me like i had my like full bone makeup over the eye there was just a lady that looked at me with like disgust. She was kind of like, what is happening? She might've been jealous. She doesn't do her makeup as well as you. Yeah, it could be that.

It could be that. But I think like people are all going to have their own style. And I think that's what I came to realize living in Florida is how I dressed there was me hiding who I truly was. Because as soon as I moved out to LA, I felt so comfortable. Because it's like, I'd go out and I felt underdressed. So it was like, it kind of depends on like

where you're living. Because like, I mean, for me, I was definitely scared to be myself in a hometown with everyone I knew, family knew, people knew my family, you know. But then I think just kind of having your own look is what makes it so cool and unique because it's like i go out and it's like i'm wearing a shirt that's like spray painted with one of my songs on it or a tie and a jacket that's all pinned up and

people are like oh dude that's like what you wear all the time like and i'm like yeah right it's what i want you to know me for wearing like i'm not doing it just to wear it but i definitely think the other thing you were saying how it like categorizes with my family and stuff is uh my dad used to dress like this when he had hair he would have the crazy hair all bleached and spiked up in the makeup and i think like i didn't even know that i would just kind of like be like no he doesn't wear this he just wears black jeans and a shirt but uh it just was the funniest thing to me realizing that he does because it's like we all have that time in our life where we take a journey and figure out our style yeah you know i think i went through the oasis phase and then the big dc phase and then the baggy pant

phase to the tight pant phase so it kind of like circles back to just going on a journey and having fun and figuring out like what is your thing you know yeah i love that why do you think pop punk uh pretty much fell off like it had a peak in the 2000s yeah it just fell off from there do you think it will ever make a comeback um i don't know if it'll ever be a mainstream like top-selling genre again at least not for a couple years but i think like where it's at right now is where it's come back to like with artists bringing the genre back and i think the reason it fell off is just because like you know times were changing there's like the way the world is is we all have five second attention spans so once something new or a new trend happens it's like that's where everyone turns to for that time and the

new music that came out like you know those artists are crazy like like Drake one of the best artists out there right yeah like you know when people like drop new music I think a new wave starts and that wave is then taken over you know and a lot of the new music has turned into a tsunami like it's just yeah overshadowing everything else but i think with the way it is right now like music is gonna come back because it has that circle right now like with artists like machine gun kelly with artists like youngblood with paramore going back on tour with Avril Lavigne back on tour and now like crazy Blink 182 is going on tour right so it's like childhood dreams and the band I got to go on tour with beauty school

dropout great friends if you want to check out their music beauty school dropouts a insanely talented band they're about to go on tour opening for Blink-182 wow so it's kind of like taking that old generation that we all like grew up with with Blink-182 which is a band I probably should have mentioned that I listened to but uh and now bringing that new wave of the punk alternative you know rock and roll on the tour with them so it's kind of like hey this might be our last tour ever, but here's that new music to check out, you know, which I kind of love. I love when artists bring the next generation around. Yeah. That's sick. It's cool to see that. What's the biggest stage

you've performed on and what's your dream stage that you want to perform on? I think the biggest I did was crazy enough. My hometown. hometown okay i got to open up for my pops wow in florida at the fort lauderdale hard rock nice where i used to be a security guard i just went there last month yeah it's a beautiful hotel i was a security guard there like every day i think my shifts were like 7 p.m until 10 a.m the next day or something like overnight shifts like one lunch break cafeteria for the meatloaf uh i do love meatloaf yeah it was good every day it probably gets people hated on it but it was actually not bad i used to work with this kid who would put mayonnaise on it oh and i was like i'd question it i'd be like what's happening i try it but it sounds yeah

no do the mayonnaise mayo on meatloaf. Interesting. I think that was the biggest crowd I did. I think it was 6,000 people. Were you nervous? Going up there, yes, because it was a hometown show. So I knew, like, everyone going. I, like, remember, like, my high school teachers were there.

College teachers were there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Girls that have crushes on were there. I was like, if I mess up right now, this is it. Like none of them are going to want to care. So was there a leap of faith moment for you when you quit the 9 to 5s or do whatever you did where you went all in on now being in the music industry? Yeah. Believe it or not, moved when i moved to

la i got a job i worked at a little uh snowboard shop on fairfax it was kind of cool because fair fairfax is like a popular place so you'd have people walking back and forth like there were artists so i'd actually network a lot there and i would meet people i met someone who shot our first music video from working at my job right and it was one day where i would get a text and it was like yo man come to the studio i'm with so-and-so let's make a hit ah man i'm working next day yo man come here we're doing a photo shoot let's get some cool flicks nah man sorry i'm working next day hey man are you working today we're at the studio yeah i'm working sorry and then it was like i really just kind of realized it and i i called my friend that i moved here with and i was like dude i just got to get out of it and he was like yeah man well

what'd we move to la for yeah and uh i kind of just looked at my boss and i was like look man thank you so much great opportunity and i saved up some money but i gotta go and that was kind of like the turning point where i really realized like i moved out here i might as well give it my all yeah so you took a chance yeah and it's paid off it looks like yes so far so good you know fingers crossed but we're just hoping for the next step like just want to have fun with it along the way and you know make sure that everything goes smooth and yeah enjoy every moment because it seems like now a lot of artists don't even really get the time to enjoy a lot of moments i'm curious the business model the music side do artists make a

majority of the money from their streams uh streams no streams you barely make anything so it's all merch uh yeah most of the money is going to come from touring merch or like technically you're not earning it but if you like you get signed to a major label and you're advanced right but that advanced you know they have to recoup and you have to spend that on music stuff but like most your money that's why you see a lot of artists now just touring all the time right bad money is touring a lot yeah like because that's the way to make money and it's not only just the way to make money it's the way to grow new fans it's the way to have people see your live shows and sell merch and so it's like as much as it is the most cost effective to grow income is touring it's also the most effective to grow a fan base because it's like without

touring no one's gonna really like see you and right get to hear your music and other than itunes or spotify right yeah that makes sense because spotify only pays like a couple dollars per thousand right yeah like my friend i remember i hit my first 100 000 streams my friend was like bro you're rich and i was like what do you mean and he was like dude a hundred thousand dollars you think i get a dollar a stream i said dude if it was a dollar a stream many people would be in business like spotify wouldn't be charging that little for a membership yeah and uh he was like what do you mean i was like bro it's probably less than a cent and he was like you don't know i was like i don't check it i don't want to disappoint myself when i go into the like

distribution company and i'm like oh ten dollars yeah here we go but it's like and that's when i think people like understand that like music's more than just us trying to make money like i enjoy just making music so it's like you know if it down to it, like if I could live day by day, eat and have a roof over my head, that's fine. As long as you can get cookies at Subway, you're set. Cookies at Subway and let me make music. Okay. So you don't do it for the money. No, I mean, end of the day, anyone who says they're not doing it for it, they could be lying because most of us we do need like i said

to pay rent but i do it because i enjoy it and if it goes somewhere cool but right now like i'm just enjoying the moment and living in it yeah day by day do you feel pressure from your grandfather's massive success yeah uh that's like one of the things that i feel the most is like with him passing away and like still being such a legend um i always feel like when i'm like in a room full of people they're just kind of like oh he's in that room because of this you know you know he didn't earn to be in this room and i think that's the hardest thing is like a lot of people think that and uh there's a lot of artists you know whose family members are big that probably deal with the same thing and i think him having that legacy like i wake up every day like you know how can i grow to leave a legacy like that and uh it's

one of the hardest things to think about because you never will you know like i truly can say like i don't think i could ever leave the type of impact that he left and i'm not saying i'll never be as big you know because high hopes dream big but it's like the impact he left on the music industry and the drumming industry because times were so different back then you know he was doing things the drummers do now but he was doing them with a single pedal or he was playing a certain way that we now do in a different way and we made it easier right like he was just okay i'll use my hands he was raw yeah like my grandma she told me the craziest story that he would come home and uh during the moby dick solo where he throws the sticks to the side and does with his hands

and he would come home with just cut some blood all over his hands wow because he would just go and play and like play his heart out that's crazy so it's like as much as i want to grow and be you know a successful artist i think it's one of those things where it's like i have to understand that he set a bar pretty high right you know very high yeah not much higher you could get yeah and it's going to be hard right like because you're you know obviously it comes with the good and the bad about it what is for you been your lowest point in the music industry um I think when I put out a song and it flopped okay uh I've I've put out a song and I was you know expecting a million things you know it was my first song I ever put out I was like it's gonna blow up blow up. It's going to be this. It's going to be that.

And I think that's when reality sets in that there's a lot more that goes into it, like distribution companies, publishing, the correct management, getting it seen by publishers and artists and articles and playlisting. Because it's like when we see an artist drop a song, it's not just their fan base going to it. It's a playlist, putting it's like when we see an artist drop a song you know it's not just their

fan base going to it it's a playlist putting it on their playlist it's Apple Music throwing it on one of their charts it's the radio it's this and that so it's like I put this song out I posted it put it on my Instagram story with 6 000 followers at the time and I was like hey guys new song go stream it and it was like five weeks in and i had like 10. wow and i was like oh this is going to be a lot harder than i thought um but yeah i think that was my lowest point when i really and it wasn't even that low it was just like i realized like this is going to take more and work a little bit harder yeah what do you think about music labels because they get a bad rep these days um see a lot of people always say like you know the labels can be bad and good um

it also in my eyes just depends on where you're at like for my following right now like if i signed i find it would be a little bit pointless because i'm still so low and I feel like when you're signing you have to kind of have leverage momentum you know like I have to be able to say like well I provide this so this is how you can help me but um I feel like it also yeah like people get a bad rep for doing anything these days I think labels are great okay you know they help artists a lot with networking with paying for things like music videos promotion and stuff like that and touring you know yeah um was led zethlyn signed to a label yeah i think they were on atlantic okay which is a major major label but um yeah i think labels are great they just they get a bad rep because they take on these new artists as soon as they blow up. And, you know, they're obviously making more money than that.

Like if you come in and you just popped off on a song and they're like, Oh, sign right away. You know, you don't know what other options are out there on the table. And then these artists, like when they're not making $10 million in their first year, they're like on Instagram, like, Oh, labels are bad. It's not doing anything for me but I think it's more of just like the correct timing to sign because it's like if you sign at the right time why would it be bad you know yeah but if you can do it independently do it if you have the following and the momentum and the fan base to grow and tour with your own funds and sell merch with your own funds and shoot music videos with your own funds why not all you're doing then is spending your own funds and sell merch with your own funds and shoot music videos with your own funds why not

all you're doing then is spending your own money that you're going to recoup a label is kind of like the middleman like it's the bank it's a cash advance yeah it's just helping with financial things so it's like it's where you kind of got to take into consideration can i finance this can i not right that makes sense so i think i already know the answer based on what you've said so far but would you rather be famous and broke or rich and have nobody in the world know your music wow that is tough that's actually a really good question famous and broke or rich and have nobody know i think oh wow i'm like stuck i'm like oh my god uh right so you're either you're either rich beyond your wildest dreams with you know three streams yeah or you have or you're broke but you've got a song with a billion streams on spotify i think i'd say rich and nobody know my music okay because

that answer you thought no i would have guessed the opposite because you know being famous is cool being famous is cool you know i feel like you know i mean i'm not but when you get to that level i think you know that would be kind of something thrilling and exciting, but I'd also rather just have the money to like take care of family and stuff. And I feel like if I'm like at that point of what Rich you're saying, I could definitely take care of my sister, take care of my mom and dad and take care of like family if they ever needed it. So I think I'd rather be there. Plus you could use that money to get famous. No, no, no. That'd be breaking the rules.

There's like a rule book to it. Yeah. We found the loop, but it's not the loop it's been a pleasure man any closing comments where people can find you um i got a new song dropping may 5th it's called freak show we just shot a music video okay self-funded so uh please help us recoup and go run it up but i'm having a barbecue that day, so I'll play it on the speaker. Yeah, but yeah, no, that's it. Just step by step. Enjoy the journey. That's why we're here. Awesome.

Well, you heard it here, guys. Digital Social Hour. Thanks for tuning in. See you next week. America, we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. By honoring your sacred vocation of education, you impact your family, your friends, and your community. At Grand Canyon University, our online bachelor's, master's, and doctoral education degree programs allow you to balance online coursework with observational and hands-on experience in the field.

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