Stay Tranquilo - Why You Should Follow Your Dreams, Top Country Artists, and What it Means to be The Cuban Cowboy?

Episode Date: August 13, 2024

In this episode of the Stay Tranquilo Podcast, powered by Stay Tranquilo Network, we are joined by Country artist and Miami legend, Orlando Mendez, AKA The Cuban Cowboy. In this episode we touch on: - how Orlando got into country music - what it is like chasing a career in music - the importance of following your dreams - top country artists of all time - AND MORE Show brought to you by: Vic Garcia World: https://vicgarciaworld.com/ Curaleaf FL: https://curaleaf.com/dispensary/florida Johnny Cuba Beer: https://www.johnnycuba.us/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Your nickname is the Cuban cowboy, right? You go as the Cuban cowboy. You're born here in Miami, but your parents, grandparents are Cuban? Yes. How do you, I guess, kind of embrace that name of the Cuban Cowboy? Because Cuban music obviously skews more white American. Right. Yet, us Hispanics fucking love country music.

We listen to it. I know we do. I do. A bunch of my friends do. We enjoy it even though we're Cuban and, you know, we're Hispanic. But we really like the country music. So how have you really kind of embrace that name of the... Cuban Cowboy.

Yeah, I mean, I'm super proud of it, man. I'm just proud to represent not only my family, my grandparents, but also my community, man. Like, growing up here in Miami, I just feel so much love for this place and for the Cuban community. And so I'm really proud to wear that name. But I feel like I'm trying to implement it more into my music,

I'm trying to represent even more. And that's still a process I'm going through. I came out with that one song, Motherland, which is about my story, but also it was really the Cuban American story. which, you know, that hit here in Miami and in the Cuban American community. So I'm super proud of that one.

I'm trying to do that again, but even better, you know, I'm trying to implement those elements of Sasa and of Cuban music that we love into country music, which is obviously my passion. I think it'll go hand in hand because like you said, we love country music. Yeah.

You know? What is going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Stay Tranquilo podcast. We are here joined by Orlando Mand. aka the Cuban Cowboy and it's a very long overdue we're going to get into a little bit of Orlando story how we got

into country music and just the current state of where you're at with things and yeah I think it's going to be a fun episode I'm a big country music fan myself it's something that I kind of grew up around so I'm excited to do this and something that

me as like personal I'm excited about so appreciate you for being here course man thanks for having me brus Absolutely. It's going to be cool. So you got a busy kind of last couple of days. Tell the people a little bit about, you know, what's been going on the last, you know, week or two.

Yeah, so my band and I are touring. We took off from Nashville yesterday at around 7 in the morning. We got here to Miami at 1.30 in the morning. Crazy. We have a show today, Cooper City. Then we take off right from here to Charleston, South Carolina, for a show tomorrow. And then back to Nashville.

Yeah. So it's a typical little weekend run of, of craziness. Yeah, I feel the music world, I guess, is like that, right? Where it's just always go, go, go. You're on the move a lot. You're trying to plug yourself in in as many places as possible to get that exposure. For sure, yeah, especially in the beginning.

You know, you gotta do whatever, you know, you gotta get those opportunities, build the fan bases and if you have a cool show somewhere, you gotta go. You gotta get up and go. And Nashville right now obviously is the hub of country music and a lot of artists have been discovered there. You know, so for you, it makes a ton of sense. Obviously, you made the move, you made that transition. You're all in on the country music, and that's the place to be.

No, I just, like, a couple years. I moved to Nashville coming on two years, and, you know, it was just a no-brainer. Like you said, it was, I was doing country here in Florida for a while, but I felt like I needed to be closer to the hub of writers, of executives, of the labels of where, you know, country music happens. And it's been good, man. It's been good professionally. Nice, man.

That's awesome. So let's rewind and let's get into it. Take it all the way back. When did you get into country music and what was it that inspired you to become a country artist? Yeah, so I think I remember finding country music. I was like probably 12, 13 years old. I remember the first guy was Darius Rucker. Okay.

So, you know, I grew up with who are being the blowfish. Nice. Every Sunday when the dolphins would let me down, we would sing, I'm such a baby, yeah, the dolphins, man. made me cry. That was playing. And so I remember hearing a Darius Rucker song when he started doing his country stuff and recognizing the voice and just, bro, being intrigued by the story, by the lyrics, by the melody, you know, it was a song, a comeback song by Darius Rucker.

First ever country song I fell in love with. And, man, started listening to his stuff that opened up a door to other artists, you know, who I still know in love today, man, the Blake Shelton's and Dirk Spentley and, Billy Currington's of the world, the Carrie Underwood. I love Billy Currington. That era of country music, that early 2000's country. Man, I literally fell in love when it headfirst. That's all I listened to, you know, basically from that point on until it influenced me

enough to start doing it years later. And were you always into music? Like when, you know, you were a young kid was music, something that you were around, you wanted to sing, were you in that space already? Yeah, 100%. Like I've been singing for as long as I can remember. Oh, wow. You know, as a kid, always putting on little concerts for my family and stuff around the living room.

There was like my grandparents' favorite thing as to my wellos would sit around, having me to put on a little show for them in the living room. That's cool. So I never thought I would do it as a, I mean, I always had this vision of what I can be like a rock star, you know. But seriously, once I started getting older, didn't know if that's what I wanted to do as a profession, didn't know if it was a possibility. Right. Yeah, because one thing is saying, I want to do this,

but realistically and having that honest conversation with yourself saying, can I actually, you know, is this even possible, right? Like, I have all these dreams. And I'm a big believer that anything really is possible if you put your mind and you work hard at it, right? But sometimes the universe will say, hey, as much as you really want to do it right now

may not be the right time to do it, right? So it is a difficult kind of choice to make And it's respectable that the fact that you kind of take that leap of faith and put yourself out there because it's not easy, man. It's not easy. I know you. I know you know it. It's not easy. People don't see the, you know, they all they see is the fame and the fortune and all the glorious things that come with it, but they don't see everything in between the lines.

My band and I were talking about that yesterday in the car ride, man, because there's, you know, it's tough out here. And it's, there's so many easier ways to make money. You know, that's what we were saying is like, this can't be about the money. Right. No, you can never make it. If you make it about the money, you will quit fast. Right. And I feel like that goes for a lot of creatives.

The second, you know, you can do it, the second you do it for the money, man, it's going to weigh on you because there's so many easier ways to make money. True. You know, this is a grind. This is a slog and it's super, you know, it's worth it. Obviously, you're doing what you love and your passion, but it ain't always easy. Yeah. No. There's a lot of not glamorous moments, especially.

This past, you know, the past two years. That's a great. But the reason you keep doing is because you know that there's something on the other side. At least that's what you tell yourself. For sure. You can convince yourself that, you know, there's more. There's more. There's more.

But you also have, you know, a fan base, right? And the fan base really kind of aspires you to want to be more and do more because you're like, shit. You know what? People are actually listening to me, you know? People are showing up to my shows. So there's also that validation throughout that process where you're, like, I'm doing something, right?

Like, people are listening to me and they're watching me and, you know, reaching out to me, all these things. And you're like, okay, shit, maybe I do have something on my, on the horizon. Absolutely. No, and there's moments of like, there's moments that make it really worth it. You know, it's a gradual climb and little by little you start gaining fans and gaining audience. And then I feel like there's just a moment that pops a little bit and there's, you know, big growth. Yeah.

And then again, slow, slow. So, yeah, if you live for those moments. moments, you know. Absolutely. So when you were, I guess, starting your career in music space, how did you compile your band of musicians and all that? Yeah. So I started off the first ever configuration of my band was just a duo. It was me and a buddy, Chris Ortega, that I went to elementary, middle and high school with. Wow. There's long, I mean, lifelong friend. But over COVID, we both had nothing to do. I learned, started learning how to play acoustic guitar. He had been playing electric guitar.

crazy they say the whole acoustic thing during COVID because we were having dinner the other day and they randomly came up in the conversation. My girlfriend was like, oh yeah, I picked up the acoustic guitar. Yeah. Or no, I'm sorry, not acoustic. What's the little... Oh, the ukulele? The ukulee. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then like my brother's girlfriend was there and she's like, oh, I got the ukulele too and I started playing it. And it was just like a random things that people were picking up during COVID. And I thought that was funny because I'm like, I feel like a lot of those creative juices started flowing during COVID because people weren't distracted. by other shit.

Yeah, I mean, you had nothing to do. I was sitting there, I was like, dude, either I can make use of this time or just get fat and drink myself to sleep. You know, so I learned how to play, started learning how to play acoustic, and my buddy had been jamming in his garage. He had a garage setup. He had been jamming playing electric guitar for a while. We got together.

We started jamming. And then as things opened up a little bit, we started playing at bars. And then the current band I have now was four. One day I was in the keys looking for more gigs, just handing out cards. Nice. I'm sitting at the Tiki Bar in Alamara. This is my last stop.

I've been out all day, handing out cards. I'm tired. Like, no one wants to give me the time of day. I'm sitting there and I hear some people setting up. And some, I look over and it's a band. Some guys are cool guitar. I go up, I talk to him, hey, I'm an artist, whatever. That guy ended up connecting me with my band.

You know, I start playing at the Tiki Bar in that spot. And he configured the rest of the band together. Holy cow. And those guys, the core of that is still my band today. Holy shit. Cole and Blake and standing on guitar. All University of Miami School of Frost grads. We all started playing at the Tiki Bar and out of the way.

Wow. Damn, that's pretty cool. So this guy put you in contact with them. Yeah. And then you just started playing gigs with them. Yeah. Holy shit. That's crazy. And what were they up to at the time?

Same thing. Like kind of just fine. Yeah, trying to find gigs. There's all those like kind of like lost puppies and they all kind of came together and you guys built like a unit. Yeah, floating, trying to find money, trying to find gigs. And, you know, they were going to, they were still at UM. We started gigging around. Nice.

And so your band consists of a drummer, right? Yeah, drummer, bass player, electric guitarist, and me on vocals and acoustic guitar. Nice. Oh yeah. And you guys are traveling all together. Nice. Yeah, look, it's, like when I think about the concept of like a band, on the road, it's like a TV show.

Yeah. Like, I'm sure the crazy things that happen when you guys are on the road and the stories and reminiscing something that may have happened when you were out there. You guys spent a lot of time together. Oh, yeah, dude. I mean, hours and hours in the car. We were even saying yesterday, I know everybody at some point says this, but Cole, the bass player is like, man, we should just put her in like a camera and a recorder in here.

I was about to say. A hundred percent. Put a GoPro there on the dashboard. and just capture whatever the hell you can capture from that drive. It's just going to be golden there for sure. I was like, yeah, it'd be great. We're also going to get canceled in three seconds. That's true.

We're going to have to filter and bleep out of us. Yeah, we're going to get canceled and four seconds, whatever, whatever. That's funny. So your nickname is the Cuban Cowboy, right? You go as the Cuban Cowboy. You're born here in Miami, but your grandparents are Grandparents? Yes. Okay.

So how long ago did you were, was it your parents born in Cuba or your grandparents? My parents were born here. My mom was born here. My dad was born in Puerto Rico after my grandparents got out of Cuba. So your grandparents came to Cuba from Cuba to the States, and then your mom was born here. My mom was born here. Got you, got you. Okay.

Yeah, same thing. My grandparents born in Cuba. Mom was actually born in New York, and my dad was born here. Nice. Everyone had to get out of Cuba and start a life over here. Exactly. How do you, I guess, kind of embrace that name of the Cuban Cowboys? Because Cuban music obviously skews.

more white American. Right. Yet, us Hispanics fucking love country music. We listen to it. I know we do. I do. A bunch of my friends do. We enjoy it even though we're Cuban and, you know, we're Hispanic.

But we really like the country music. So how have you really kind of embrace that name of the Cuban cowboy? Yeah. I mean, I'm super proud of it, man. I'm just proud to represent not only my family and my grandparents, but also my community, man. Like growing up here in Miami, I just feel so much love for this place and for the Cuban community.

And so I'm really proud to wear that name. But I feel like I'm trying to implement it more into my music. I'm trying to represent even more. And that's still a process I'm going through. I came out with that one song, Motherland, which is about my story, but also is really the Cuban American story, which, you know, that hit here in Miami and in the Cuban American community.

So I'm super proud of that one. I'm trying to do that again, but even better. I'm trying to implement those elements of Sasa. of Cuban music that we love into country music, which is obviously my passion. I think it'll go hand in hand, because like you said, we love country music. Yeah.

Well, I mean, when you really think of what the Cuban cowboy is, it's a Guaido. Yeah, it's a Guadro, yeah, exactly. The concept of it exists, your music's in English, but people, you know, in Cuba were living on the campos out there and all the farmland that they did, and their style of music was very different. It was more of like that country style feel.

You know, you're there working on the land. For sure. You have cows, you know, very country-esque. Absolutely. In Cuba, right? It's not like in the middle of Kentucky or something like that where they have their own kind of style of their country music. I feel like there's something to be said there.

There's like the Guayit, the Guayit, can't say it. Yeah. Yeah. A concept, but in an Americanized version. Yeah, I know. So I'm working with my producers now. we're trying to do that and do it genuinely. Right.

You know, nothing, nothing cheesy, but something that's really genuine and ground sounds like country music with a country lyric, but just with these extra elements of my, you know, of our background. Right. And of the stuff that my grandparents were listening to that my Awello's love and that, you know, we still love today. Yeah, that's cool. I think the Miami people have really gravitated to you because of that.

People want someone to represent, you know, where they're at and where they're from. For sure. And we don't really have, there's no one out there, you know. So you've put it upon yourself and be like, I'm going to be this guy and I'm going to kind of own it, which is cool. Absolutely, man. I want to make them, I want to make them proud, bro. I want to rep. And I also think, man, if you think about it, there's such a big lane right now, you know, with all this, you know, more people getting into country music.

With the genre blending happening, there's such a lane for, like, representation up for. Hispanics in the country in the country space. I mean, look at what Post Malone's doing right now. For sure. You know, complete genre shift essentially for him. And I think he's doing a great job of it. But, you know, the country artists have embraced him as well. And making music with him and Morgan Wall and Blake Shelton.

He's coming out with this whole album that's going to be full of guys. I think Luke Holmes is even on it. Yeah, he is. Yeah, which is crazy. You know, I mean, a guy like Post Malone, it's like you said, it's that blend of genres. And I think not. not only are the artist embracing it,

but fans are really open to the idea of what country music used to be and what it's becoming now, right? I think you have some old heads that are like, oh, you hear it all the time. They're like, oh, country's gotten too pop or, you know, whatever it is. But listen, it's bringing in a whole new, like a fan base. You know, people that would have never listened to country music now

are listening to it. Morgan Wallens had a top, you know, song on all genres. That tells you something. and I think it's just a shift because there was a point maybe, I don't know, six years ago where it looked like country music

was going to die. I was like, dude, no one's listening to country. I'm the only one bumping to this. And I'm listening to the same guys I've been listening to since, you know, I was 12, 13 years old, but dude, it's been revitalized.

Absolutely. No, made a massive resurgence and now, like you said, you see all these other artists want to do country music because it's expanded, you know, and I think that's great for the genre, man.

Of course, you're always going to have the, you know, the very, the truest, too, like, we just wanted to sound like this and be like this. Happens in the Latino space too. For sure when Bad Bunny came into the mix, those old heads were probably not happy, right. No, absolutely not. But Bad Bunny's Bad Bunny and he's huge. Morgan Wallin's kind of like that, I feel like in the country music world. For sure. No, I think it's going to be, it's awesome, man. Yeah, that's cool.

I like what I'm seeing. So now that you've been doing music for a few years, do you have a favorite venue you've played at or favorite experience that? Yeah, I mean, I think Country Bay last year was awesome. That's right, yeah. Because to play this massive country festival here in my hometown was sick. You know, growing up, I don't remember ever seeing, I mean, other than Tortuga, maybe when I was in high school.

Right. I don't remember seeing a country festival here in Miami, you know. And just to have that be right in Keyes game, to be on the lineup with some of my favorite artists was, I was an honor, bro. It was really insane. And that's a pretty sweet venue when you think about it, right there on the water, the beach.

It checks all the boxes of what you would, you know, what you want. It gives like that Zach Brown band kind of feel. For sure. For sure. Which is cool. No, and they did it right. It was like it was country, but it was Miami. It was like, you know, it was boots, but it was bougie. It was awesome.

It was like the perfect thing. It's exactly what you would think, the Miami Country Festival would look like. That's dope. and what um what's your i guess advice if i'm someone that wants to become an artist and i really want to put myself out there what would be a piece of advice that you would leave to someone like that wants to do this yeah i would say it's uh you know doing the uncomfortable and i'm trying to even get better with that now but it's that first step of like i'm going to jump into the unknown and i'm going to take that leap of faith right and unless you do that you don't know that

take those chances and start really devoting yourself to like being uncomfortable, you know, I feel like that's the only way to do anything real major, you know, if you want to do something that is special, it's going to take some moments of like real uncomfort, discomfort. And I'm trying to get better with that and take more risks even now. Right. That's the only way to get, you know, forward. Do you catch yourself when you're like in this process of trying to embrace the discomfort of like comparing yourself to other artists in the in the process because I feel like that's the biggest thing right like that is you want to obviously you aspire to be someone but you almost get up caught up too much in what they're doing and like oh you know why am I not having those same

results like you does that happen man that's you hit it on the head bro like that that's been the struggle the last year really since I got to Nashville because I was over here in south Florida and in Florida doing this basically, you know, in a small pond. Now I jumped into the ocean of people all trying to do the same thing. And it's so easy to compare yourself. I mean, you got my friends doing this and my friends doing that and they're playing this festival and they're just released, they just signed this deal and they released this project and look who promoting it. It's so easy to compare yourself and get discouraged and get it down and feel like you're behind. Yeah. And I've just had to, I honestly have a lot of conversations with mentors and just

put my head down and say, I'm going to run my own race. I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to be unique. It'll be me. Yeah. And you know, pray there's a space for it. Of course, yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, it really comes down to your unique brand as a person. For sure. Because that's what people are going to

gravitate to. And that's what's going to build your core, right? Because once you've kind of build that core, then there's like a TED talk and it's like the hardest thing to do is get that first 10%, right? once you get that first 10%

then you just have the followers that just come in and they grab it to what everybody else is kind of paying attention to, right? But if you don't get that first 10%, it's going to be really difficult to get the masses because they don't really care, you know, they're caught up on whatever's big and cool

at the time. Right. But that core will be your foundation to bring everybody else. Absolutely. You know, I think, you know, maybe you're at, maybe you're at the 8% mark, you know, and you're just that close. And I think sometimes a lot of people don't realize maybe how close they actually are, right? Because you're, you're grinding, you're grinding, you're grinding, and you're not really seeing the results maybe that you

expect it to see or you just hypothetically want, right? But you could be right here and like, there's no finish line, but, you know, where you really want to be is right there. Literally maybe right on the next door you open. To me, that's what keeps me going. You know, I'm like, from one door, it's just one door, one person, you know, one moment, whatever that is, that could just literally be the difference. That's it, man. And we see it, like in country reasons, we see it over and over again. These stars that just pop, bro.

Yeah. You know, one song to the next. And that's what I know is that, especially in today's world where you got TikTok, you can easily blow up on, Instagram, you can easily blow up on, or just record one hit. Exactly. That just pops, you know, and the whole world is different. You know, your whole world is different. I mean, the perfect example is the Hawk Tua chick.

Yeah, bro. You say one thing on an interview on Brotto Head in the year. It wasn't even, the crazy part is like someone was like, dude she said two words and she's famous i'm like she didn't say two words she made two noises that's it hot to her and it was like that's it boom and she i mean it's cool to see how she's kind of evolved you know but she had no social media right she was just a a legit regular girl i think she worked for like a construction company or something and she got on social media the first day she gets an instagram page like over a million followers and then she was like

turning down brand deals being very selective she even got a gig offered to her by a playboy i think or something like that's crazy and she's like no no i'm not going down that route but it is crazy like that's like that ticotification you know that virality that can happen from a random moment you know and you really the other thing is too you really never know like who's in the crowd when you're performing right course you just you you you never know it's it's really about that divine timing and i think that's what you we all have to kind of convince ourselves and tell ourselves like, hey, you know, I'm doing everything that I can do to control the outcome of whatever it is like happens in my life. But I am not going to get fixated on the things that I can't control, right?

Because I'm working hard. I'm doing all the, you know, you're doing all the gigs. You're doing literally everything that you could possibly do. And as you, you know, as you go through your craft, you say, okay, what could maybe I do better? Where am I maybe missing a little short? Where's their opportunity and you adapt through the process. But sometimes some things are just out of our control. And you just got to trust it.

100%. Like I can't control who's going to see me when something's going to pop, when a song's going to be a hit. But all I can control is putting my head down and grinding every day and not getting discouraged. Just keep moving forward. Yeah, I agree. I think you're doing everything the right way

and it's a matter of time before it happens. I appreciate you, bro. Absolutely, bro. Yeah. So you're sorry. Spoke a little bit about it. Darius Rucker was like one of your inspirations growing up. Were there any other artists along the way that were really like, like, these are my guys?

Yeah. I mean, I think Chris Stapleton, because I loved him as a songwriter even before. I loved him as an artist. You know, he's had so many songs. Comeback song was written by him, your man. He's written, he was a hit songwriter before he was ever an artist. And then to make that transition to being an artist just because his talent is undeniable. Yeah, so I think he was a huge one for me.

Kenny Chesney, obviously growing up down here, being on the water listening to his music. Jack Brown band's been big too. Of course. So, yeah, there's been a bunch of artists. Yeah, yeah, Kenny Chesney is the guy, Jimmy Buffett also. Jimmy Buffett? Yeah, all right. That's my childhood, bro.

Like, and that's, you know, in my music now, you'll start to hear a lot more of that influence. That's cool. Tim McGraw was someone that I listened to a time growing up. My mom was the one that really got me into country music. We used to have a house in North Carolina when I was a kid, and we were spending a lot of time up there, and it was like in tiny, tiny little town. So all we did was write ATVs and play Manhattan all day. That's what our summers and our winters consisted of. But country music when I was out there, it was like, dude, I'm like, this is nice.

Yeah. You just, like I say it, country music is good for the soul. Yeah, I really do generally believe that, man. If I'm not listening to reggae in the car, I am listening to country music. That's, and then, you know, it depends like the mood. Maybe a little, like, not house, but like that kind of like vibe. Just so like for the, but it's country music nine out of ten times for me. And it's just because I think I've just built that emotional connection over the years of like,

it makes you feel good. No matter who it is, if it's Blake, if it's Combs, if it's Morgan Wallin, you know, or some of the oldies like Billy Currington, I just, it puts me in a different place, mentally. And I'm like, dude, windows down in the truck and blasting some country music. Feeling good. I guess it never gets, literally never gets old for me. No, and I feel like it does such good, such a good job of like putting you in a place, you know. Country music is all about stories and memories. Very true. And I feel like I can listen to a song and it'll take me back to the time of my life.

It's been like, you know, anthems for me throughout life. The storytelling, I think, is the biggest thing that people miss the mark when it comes to country music. Because people are like, how do you listen to song? like just listen listen to listen to what's going on and you'll get it and then and then nine and ten times they're like shit yeah yeah right i put so many people on country music it's it's it makes me happy to see how little they listened to it before and then like i've seen them in like a couple years i'm like ah look good i see what you're doing my parents that's my parents bro my parents never i i didn't grow listening to country music because they didn't listen to country

music and once I started you know loving it I got them into listen to a little bit and then especially when I started you know doing it now as a profession now that's all they listen to you know they love it they love the genre that's their favorite that's cool I imagine they have a son that's in it they they better learn for sure yeah I hope so shoot I hope so all right so before we kind of wrap it up I want to do like a rapid fire question do it let's do rapid fire question with you hey give me your top five all-time country artist I think you got to go

Luke Combs Stapleton Tim McGraw Kenny Chesney man this is a tough one yeah yeah we're yeah we'll go

we'll go Blake Shelton I felt like Blake had to be in there just because that's my boy now that's my boy now and the thing is like he's still making music to his day yeah yeah that's my boy enough still relevant. Coolest dude too when I got to meet him on the voice.

Oh, nice. Oh shit, that's cool. Yeah, he's icon. I don't even know who my top five would be. I think Wallin would have to be in my top five, though. Yeah, yeah. I'm a big Wallin guy. I don't know, something about him just hits.

All right. I think I know the answer to this question, but a lot of people get tied up with it. Beach or Mountain guy? Beach. Beach, easy? All day, every day. Yeah?

Yeah. Yeah, because sometimes I ask people that question. they're like, nah, I don't, I think I'm a beach guy, but then I think about him, like kind of like the mountain. The mountain, too. Yeah, they'll get me wrong. You put me in a mound. I'd be happy, too, but no, beach all day.

And then third question, are you a dolphin fan? Yes, huge, bro. What are your thoughts on Tua? I like my guy, too, bro. You know, I had my doubts in the beginning. I still have a little weary, a little weary, a little trepidious. You know, a lot of money we just gave them. but I'm rooting for his success, bro.

I'm not, I'm not praying out of the downfall, I'll tell you that. Hell yeah. I think it's going to be a good year this year. Yeah, I think so. I think so. Super bored bust. Super bored bust, baby. Let's go, please.

Please. All right, dude. Well, I appreciate you being on. I know you got a crazy busy schedule. I'm glad we got to squeeze us in there. For sure, bro. This is awesome. We're going to be watching your story and watching your success as you grow and hopefully

we do this again soon. Definitely, brother. This is awesome. If I can say one more thing, I would just like say. Thank you. Thank you guys for having. Thank you guys for having. me. Yeah, if you want to follow my journey, you can follow along on Instagram, Orlando Jay

Mendez music, TikTok as well. I have an EP, my first full-length project coming out. Oh, sure. Well, it's not a full album, but it's a five-song project coming out in early October. So I'm really excited about that. I've been releasing a bunch of music, but this is my first project that I'm proud of. You got some beach, boat and heartbreak music in there, so you can check that out. We got a couple of Stay Tranquito playlist. So I'm going to throw all Orlando. That would be awesome, bro. So they get mixed in because it's a fire playlist. Yeah, that'd be awesome. But send it over, dog. I want to send it to you. I want a ballroom. There's signs around playing on the course and random people, I guess will hear my music and they'll come up to me and like, what playlist is that?

And I'm like, I got you. I love that, bro. Send that over. For sure. Well, thank you guys for tuning in. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. And yeah, stay tuned for Orlando's journey and for more awesome things to come. See you guys soon.