Trading Secrets - 291. Thirty Minute Thursday! DJ Life, Coachella Chaos & Bieber’s Viral Comeback

Episode Date: April 16, 2026

This episode of 30 Minute Thursdays features the Curious Canadian stepping in for Jason alongside Blake Horstmann, diving into the evolving DJ world—from turning a passion into a career to the realities of breaking into the industry—before shifting into a full Coachella recap, covering everything from behind-the-scenes insights and festival culture to a firsthand breakdown of Justin Bieber’s headline-making performance, all in a fast-paced, fun, and easy-to-follow 30-minute conversation.

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Includes equipment of Wi-Fi and guarantee of price of two years in your plan. No, you know, CopsMobile, Gagent, and Limerick, and limited guarantee of price, no includes, and costs and charges, velocity of data, mobile, is reduced after 20 gigs a month. message is brought to you by the Capital One Venture X card. Venture X offers the premium benefits you expect, like a $300 annual Capital One travel credit for less than you expect. Elevate your earn

with unlimited double miles on every purchase, bringing you one step closer to your next dream destination. Plus, enjoy access to over 1,000 airport lounges worldwide. The Capital One Venture X card. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. Lounge access is subject to change. See Capital One.com for details. Welcome back to another 30 minute Thursday. I'm your host today, the Curious Canadian, David Ardwin, our normal host, Jason Tarduk, he's on a work trip. And it's just so Jason Tardick to be on a work trip and leave his boy hanging. And so you know what I did? People, I went out there. I put my thinking head on and I said, who's been on trading secrets more than anybody other than Jason and myself? And guys, it's the one, the only. It's Blake Horstman. Blake, thank you for joining

us on 30 minute Thursday, the first 30 minute Thursday that you've been on so far. How are you feeling? Feeling good, man. I always love coming on this podcast, man. I have been on here quite a bit of time, so I love it. Well, we love having you. And listen, I'm always looking to upgrade from Jason as a co-host. And I just, you know, I thought, what better way to upgrade than second place on Becca season instead

a third place? So there he goes. I always have to remind him. I always have to remind me of that. You know, anytime Jay can have friends like us to just give him a little bit of a humble heat check. I think that's what we're here for, right? I think that's what we're here for. That's why it keeps us around. But listen, we had

the Two Friends episode on Monday release on Trading Secrets. We're always using 30 minute Thursdays to recap those episodes, but then talk what's happening, business, what's happening in Paul Culture, when we open up our phones, when we open up TikTok, social media, whatever it is, what's being talked about? And

nobody better to have on recapping this Two Friends episode talking about the ever ever-evolving DJ industry. I want to hear a little bit more from you. And then I definitely, to tease it, we're going to talk Coachella. I mean, we have to talk Coachella because that's all that's coming up on our phones. You just got back live?

An hour ago, we walked through the door. Yeah, yeah. So it's been a hell of a week. A hell of a week. And God bless you for coming on here. So, you know, when it comes to two friends, two friends doing big booty mix in their basement, a hobby that turns into a passion. Do you know two friends?

Have you got to meet them at all? Tell me about any kind of interactions you've had with them before. Yeah, so it's funny. It's wild kind of how well this works out because two friends is literally one of the reasons I started DJing. Like they were one of the reasons I started making mashups, I should say, because I was, I'll never forget. I think it was 2017 maybe. I was in an Orange Theory fitness class and the instructor played a big booty mix. And I got off and I was like, what the hell is that?

That's the most, that's like the most creative thing I've ever listened to. And also at the same time, I was like motivated throughout the workout. And I was like, I got to find out what that was. And she was like, it's just a big booty mix. Like you got to check it out. I can't remember what number it was. But it was one of the, you know, it's like single digits ones. Then I got into it.

I was like, okay, if they can do this, you know what I mean? I didn't even know like there was technology out there that could rip vocals out of one song and throw an instrumental over another. Like, I didn't even know that existed. And so that's kind of when I got into doing mashup. So I've been a big fan of two friends for a long time. I am that new age listener, like an ADD almost type listener where I need a new song every 30 seconds, you know?

So I base a lot of my sets even off of like a two-year. friends. Not quite the big booty mix. I like to draw out my my songs a little bit more than that. 90 seconds to them to two minutes, but I'm not one of those DJs who will play a five minute mix. You know what I mean? Like a five minute song and let it breathe. Like I'm like on in the next. I'm like a live jukebox, you know. And so a lot of what I do, it comes from two friends. And I have had the chance to meet them. I met them. I played a golf tournament in Newport Beach last year. And there was so many wild celebrities there was like from like music. It was two friends.

A couple other DJs were out and about. And Sequin Barclay, your boy, Josh Allen. Like, it was a wild, wild mix of people. But I got to sit down with them. And it was just fun to pick their brains and just be like, it was cool to hear how they literally, like you kind of talked about. They went from like, you know, their mom's basement or wherever it was.

And like started doing this just for their buddies, you know, on the weekends. And then now they're selling out Red Rocks, playing Coachella, that kind of thing. So I'm a big fan of what two friends does. And they've taken a different path than a lot of DJs. which I think is really cool because obviously I have as well. So yeah, I look up to two friends a lot and what they've been able to do in the music scene. That's awesome.

And I just love like so many other successful people we've had on the podcast. It always starts out of a passion or a hobby or doing something for free, being an intern, just getting into it because it's a passion and it turns into their career, which is so exciting. When it comes to mashups for those listening in the DJ world, what part of it is just like creative genius where like they hear two songs and it comes into their head?

and how much of it is like trial and error. Like, oh, I need to get this track in there, but I don't really know to have like an instrumental or a beat to play behind the vocals. Is it a little bit of both? Or there's someone who can just be like, oh my God, I hear this song with this song. I'm putting those two together.

That's a great question. So I think some people are more musically inclined than others. I'm sure two friends is one of those people who can I listen to a song and be like, holy hell, that's the same key, the same BPM, without even looking, you know, just hearing it. It'll be like, that's D.K. 128 BPM. like that'll go well with this with R-E-S-P-C-T because it's the same B-P-M and key.

You know what I mean? And especially since they've been doing it for so long, they can do that. I'm not to that point. I can definitely hear something B-P-M-wise. I can almost match up just off of ear. I can kind of match up B-P-M's keys. You kind of lost me with that. That's a different level for me.

But yeah, sometimes, you know, I'll hear a song or even all know, like, okay, for example, I actually played a really cool festival in Jackson Hole two weekends ago. And I did the top of the mountain. They wanted me to be on the top of the mountain. They were going to fill me with drones and gopros and everything at 14,000 feet. And I was going to DJ a set. And I was like, okay, I need to make a mashup or remix of ain't no mountain high enough. You know what I mean?

So I was like, I picked up the vocal. Nowadays, you just AI, the vocal out of a song. It's pretty great. And it sounds incredible. And then I found like a fun house beat that was already being used. And I basically just took that instrumental. I laid it over. There's still some work you have to do.

I use Ableton. There's still some work you have to do sometimes. You can't just lay it over and it's perfect. you kind of got to move things around a little bit, vocals and sounds and beats and things like that to line up, line up everything so it sounds right. But a lot of it is still very technical when it comes down to the nitty gritty of it all. But once you get it, man, once you get it, you can get lost in it. You can sit for hours and just mash up songs because it is way easier than full remixes, obviously. So, like, you can mash up 10 songs in like three or four hours, you know, and you're like, oh, my guys, you know, it's so fun to do.

And I'll get lost. We have, wow, what time is that kind of thing? So I definitely, if you're into music, like mashups is where you start. Mashups is where you start rather than remix. Well, I went to college not to age myself. My freshman year in college was 0,8,09. I was at Quinnipiac University, is playing Division I on hockey. And that's when I first heard Girl Talk.

And I don't know if you've ever heard of Girl Talk before, but man, Girl Talk Feed the Animals. That thing was like talk about pregame central. That might have cost me my hockey career. I used to pregame so hard to Girl Talk. But that was kind of the infancy of it. And then Big Booty Mix now still coaching in hockey. I've heard in locker rooms for last decade.

So to have two friends on was great. To have you on is even better. I will say that. To hear Jason talks all the time about AI and how he uses it. He uses AI like chatGBT, almost like it's Siri on his phone. Like it's crazy. I'm still like foreign to it. To hear that it's coming in your world is crazy.

One thing I do got to ask you is being around Jason for so long, obviously knew him well before he went on the show. Now I see him being so successful in his career. He's got the talent agency. he's got, you know, we got the podcast and the rebranding of that. I know how excited he gets when people stop him and want to talk about the podcast other than the show. It's got to be similar for you. Are you getting more people coming up to you as Blake the DJ or is there still crossover or how does that make you feel?

How frequently is it happening? Yeah, that's a great question. So yeah, I mean, definitely I feel a bit more prideful when it comes on my music, obviously, selfishly. I do. There's still a lot of mixover, but like this weekend at Coachella, you know, I played the absolute tense, the absolute house of heat. And I had some people come up that were at my set. The year before, I mean, they were like, you were like my favorite set of the whole weekend, man. I just love your vibes. It was so fun. It was intimate. It was really cool. I had somebody come up that was at my set in New York a couple weeks or a month and a half ago. And she said the same thing. She's like, and it's always this. And it cracks me up because I don't mind it. But it's always you're actually a pretty good. You know what I mean? It's like, of course. We've been They always say, we've been to a lot of, like, quote-unquote, influence the DJs and that kind of thing. And like, you're actually really good. I'm like, thank you. You know, it's like one of those things that come out and hear me before you start judging.

But yeah, I definitely, I'm very similar to Jason as in like he takes pride in his, you know, when people come up podcast. Same thing with my music and stuff. It's really cool. I hear people putting it in their stories, you know what I mean? Because I get a notification if it's used in audio, you know, over social. So it's pretty cool. Well, I've actually had fomo one of your sets from stage coach when you're in that massive tent at stage coach.

I think I was supposed to be there. that weekend and I couldn't make it. Joe Mariano ended up going in my place and I was just like, oh my God. But I haven't been to one of your sets yet. I got to go. It's on my bucket list. Before we transition into Coachella, because you just mentioned it, I want to hear all about it.

There's so many different things I want to talk about. I am an OG believer, so I got to hear all about that. I'm going to close my eyes when you talk about it. I'm going to put myself in your shoes. I hope our listeners do the same. But I got to ask, it seems like everyone, and their mother is a DJ, right? And I think that could have been said,

maybe people were saying that about you when you first got on, right? And now you got Kyle Cook from Summerhouse. You got Zandra, from coming up in the TikTok influencer game. People using their platform into getting into this career,

which is valid. We all know to be successful as you probably take a lot of personally, how hard you work to be on the top of your game. My question is, how close is the DJ industry? are you guys how close is it is the rivals is it all support and love

is it like we don't fuck with you because you came from this world like tell give me a little juice give me a little insight on on the DJ industry that's a great question because I am unique in the sense where I started the end of 2019

mid 2019 is kind of when I really like did this like as a career move you know what I mean and so I feel like now it's so much more common for everybody to be a DJ. I feel like now, you know, before it was kind of like me and like James Kennedy and Pauli D. were like kind of the first in reality TV people anyway to do it. And so I've been doing it now about eight, eight years, you know, roughly, officially. And I've seen a lot of change in the industry.

Even in the eight like short window I've been, I will say the DJ, the music industry fans can be very like, get the fuck out of here kind of vibe, you know, like, but the the DJs themselves are actually wildly supportive. Like wildly supportive. It's awesome. Which is really cool. We like, I'll get sent remixes from some of my other DJ friends I like and I'll send them remixes that I like that.

They'll be like, hey, I'm playing, you know, whatever. Stagecoach this weekend. Hey, do you have any music? And I'll send them some of my music. Because it's one of those things where other people listen to your music and they figure out it's you and they hear from another DJ. Those they're going to be like, oh, I'm a big fan of Blake or whoever. You know what I mean?

So in that sense, it's really cool. But the fans, the fans can be a bit, I don't know, territorial. Like, I don't know the word I'm looking for, but like the EDM fans can be hard, man. They can be tough. They don't like anything mainstream, you know what I mean? So that, that's been kind of hard for me. I've had to really, like, prove myself a little bit more, which is fine, because I are still started to step up. You know, I didn't do those eight hours sets for $500. Like, I, I skipped that, and it's fine. I don't mind putting in time and, like, you know, getting my respect through that. But it's, it is interesting. I was shocked at how supportive the industry is. It's far as other

DJs. It's really cool to see. And even like, you know, like, hey, I'll send him a song about, hey, is this any good? And they'll send back be like, yeah, but man, I need to make the kick louder, put in, you know, a different synth, something like that. And so in that sense, it's really cool. And even two friends were like, really cool, you know what I mean? Like, when I met them, and I've met some other huge DJs. And I just like, keep doing your thing, man, like, find your sound, you know, things like that. So that's amazing. That's amazing. And I get that. Listen, people in any industry who have been there before, even as a fan or a consumer, then someone new shows up. It's like, you don't get my support just because you, you, you speak.

music and yeah your music might be good but like you know you got to prove yourself and and you've obviously done that over time for those who may be in nacea or you've been doing it for eight years but to show that you've been an ogy a fan of the edm industry give me your mount rushmore maybe your top four DJs of all time maybe the ones who have shaped you or when you close her eyes those are the music that you're playing i got a couple that i probably would throw out there but i'm gonna i'm gonna hear yours first okay so i'm a big fan i mean i love what's going on right now in the music world, they'll give me wrong. But I mean, the golden era of

EDM just hits different for me. I mean, I'll put Zed up there. Yep. Zed was big for me. Obviously, Avichi, Avichi also, and that's interesting, I say those too, especially because, like, they were kind of mainstream, you know what I mean? And so they brought me in kind of thing. And now I

love all kinds of different electronic music. So it's not always, you know, bad when DJs go mainstream. But I would definitely put those two up there. And then I'll pick some, like, modern, too. Chris Lake is just, dude, he produces so much music that people don't know about as far as other DJs when it comes like Fisher, his other massive DJs. He produces a lot for those guys. So Chris, he's changing the game. I love his sound, the Techhouse sound. I wasn't a big fan

until I really got into him. And then right now, because I literally just saw him at Coachella, again, I've seen like five times. It's got to be John Summon. I mean, there's something about his sets, man, that just there's never, the energy never dies and the way he can he can really control a crowd is really impressive. And as a DJ, like maybe I'll look at things a little different, be the way he can bring a

crowd all the way up to where they can't breathe, they're so excited and then bring him down but not completely lose the energy. Like that's something that is not, almost not teachable. You know what I mean? It's pretty impressive. So those would be my four. Those would be my four. I think John Simon is such an I'm glad you said his name because

he is someone who I think, has grown such a fan base because of social media and because you see him do these crazy sets and then go get on a private jet and run a half marathon and then PJ Bat and it's just like this guy's nuts he's an animal and he's like I think one of the

coolest thing and I'll say this about a lot of DJs a lot of DJs necessarily but producers they're nerds man they're nerds they just they love tech and they can be a little awkward at times Avich yes yeah it's 100% exactly and so I think John's in

that. Like, he's a goofy accountant and he's kind of embraced that. He's just like a kid living his dream and he's just loving every second of it. I think a lot of people relate to that. It's like, oh, this guy's just living his childhood dream. You know what I mean? He's goofy. He's not trying to be too cool. And I think people love that. So, yeah, John's definitely built a huge fan based on social media. My Mount Rushmore, I got to throw, because I am a EDM guy at heart too. I got to throw Tiesto on there. Adagio for strings is like, brings me to a different world in my life. That's my favorite Tiesto song. And then listen, going in college in the 2008 to 2012 era and then getting like out of college and like your first job and you're making money in 2016, which we all know, 2016 is like chain smokers.

They just hit those notes. But I love Alesso. I love Angelo. I love all those guys. So that's a good little recap. I like what we just did there for the first half of 30 minute Thursday. So nobody better to chop it up with on that than Blake, our resident DJ here at Trading Secrets.

But we're going to turn the page to Coachella. Everybody who's listening to this in some way is consuming Coachella content, whether they're getting on the Justin Bieber live stream at 3am there at local time and they're seeing that or it's just TikTok, Instagram. And we're going to talk the money behind it too. My first few questions, and I'll keep something pretty basic, how many times you've been to Coachella? That's the first one.

And how was this one different in a quick summary? We're going to get to the details of it, but really quickly, how many times you've been and how was this one different? So this was my fifth Coachella. Wow. I know, I know. It's crazy, right? I've been quite a few Coachellas.

This one, the energy felt different. The energy around Beaver, and I will say Saturday, from opening door to when the fireworks went off for his set I have never five times I have never seen so many people it was in like they clearly oversold they clearly over school tickets

it was insane the IP was shoulder to shoulder and it's never ever like that even I even heard artists like area was shoulder the shoulder like it's never been like that's crazy and how were you there like when you go are you there on on brands are you there sponsored are you there because you're a performer

like tell me how you get there And has it been the same for all five years? So four of the years I performed, which has been awesome. I'm very lucky to be able to, I mean, to say that I perform at Coachella is so cool next to these massive artists. And then one year, I got tickets through a brand, but I just, I didn't have anywhere to be or any. I didn't go to any parties. I literally, that was when I was like still like, I mean, I still obviously I'm in for the music. Like I go early and go to the music.

Yeah. And that was the first year or one of the years where I was like, I'm going just for the music. I'm going to buy a ticket. I'm going just for music. I'll be there six hours every day kind of thing. Like I said, I'm lucky enough that I haven't. I know prices now have gotten astronomical. Yes.

Especially this year. But yeah, I've been lucky enough that I've been able to work with people to go. When you go, you say you perform for four years in a row. Are you making more money every year when you get asked to come back in your negotiations? That's a great question. So actually, no. Okay. Yeah, the very first year I got paid really good.

Right. You know what I mean? And so, no, the first year I got paid the most. and then the last like three have been they were less than the first but they've been pretty steady and then honestly there's also a lot of perks they'll give you a bunch of bands and then you want you can turn around and sell those bands and then you can kind of and they know that you can kind of make the difference with that but i haven't done that last two years just because i've had like you know we brought the fan we bring friends and things like that but there are like little things like that

where brands will be like hey here's an extra five tickets you can sell for a thousand a pop yeah or whatever two thousand a pop so yeah if you're comparing them to other gigs that you get, is this a higher paying gig because it's Coachella? Or is it lower paying gig because it's Coachella? Yeah. So it's so I would play every day. So I play all three days for basically the price that I'd play two sets for. Okay.

You know what I mean? Yeah. But I see what you're saying because some people pay to play. That's what I mean. Yeah. But no, it's probably, I would say I definitely, for three sets, I wouldn't charge this. I'd want more if it was anything else. But for Coachella and the tickets and the full everything, you know, it's,

It's worth it down the line. It's like all those people who paid a play on The Bachelor for the special date where they have to stand there awkwardly and dance. Just for the promotion, exactly. All right, some quick rapid fire too. And then we're going to get all into Bieber because I have to just hear more of it. What is the biggest misconception about Coachella for someone who's never been? I want to talk about this because it's so frustrating to me because you see all the hate

at Coachella about Coachella and everything. And I get it because you get blasted on the algorithm with it. But like there was, I think I read, there were 250,000 tickets sold for the two weekends. 10% of that, not even, 5% of that are influencers. Like there are still a ton of people. And they're not in, it gets a bad rep if you haven't gone. But like it is by far the cleanest, most organized logistically and everything else. Everything's on time.

Nothing's late. Like it is one of the best most well put together festivals in the world. And there's a reason people come back year after year after year. They have they have huge names. And then they have these up-and-comers where you go as a fan and then you leave being a fan of that person. You're like, maybe you're a fan of beer, but you leave being a fan. So it is an incredible festival. And I get it why it gets hate right.

But it is a really fun festival. And there's a reason it's one of the biggest in the world. People continue to go back. Biggest celebrity sighting that you saw in person this year. Oh, my gosh. I mean, Haley Bieber, the big one. she was a big one. I saw Northwest. Okay. Yeah.

Because I saw her 12 year old. Yeah, I know she was an artist area. It was crazy. But yeah, and then obviously all the Kardashians were there. It's just wild. I said this to G, walking out on Sunday. We left a little early Sunday. We had a little kid. Walking out Sunday. Walking past. It was like my 4U page on TikTok.

Like, oh my God, I recognize you. Oh, my God. All these streamers. It was like neon. I It's crazy. I know him, but Neon was there. Nick Seriani, like, all these people were, like, passing me and I recognized every. It was kind of a weird moment. I was like, damn, this is a wild festival. I just love the concept of that, though, because you're seeing them, like, not on their phones. You're not seeing them on the stream.

You're not seeing them, hopefully enjoying the moment and hopefully not, like, so wrapped up in what they have to do next. So that's really cool. Most underrated thing about Coachella? The food. Okay. Got solid food, man. This year, it was funny, I saw somebody post, but this year, it was funny. I saw somebody posts, but this year the lines were short for food and everybody's like,

that's because everybody's on JLP. Yes. Because we were getting food. Like there was literally no line every day. There was no line to get food. But the food is very underrated. And for relatively, is it underpriced for everything else of the markups?

Because everything that I see across my TikTok where it's like prices of things at Coachella, it's like $100 for a charging station for your phone and like a good, like some food is like a little more affordable or no? It's more affordable than that for sure, but it's still pretty crazy. I think we got like, a loaded fries for like 25 bucks. Yeah, okay. I mean, it's expensive, but it's not like a hundred you know what I mean? I play EDC Vegas where like a hot dog is like $85. You know what I mean?

That kind of shit's pretty. Yeah, we've all we've all seen that chicken fingers at a pool side thing for $7,000. Yeah. Yeah. Most overrated thing of Coachella. Ooh, the most overrated thing. Oh, the Ferris wheel, man. The Ferris wheel is overrated. It's really slow and only goes around twice. So then they pop people in and out of that thing. And then the best musical performance that you saw not named Justin Bieber. Not named Justin Bieber. John Summit doing a pop-up. He did a surprise duelab set, which was insane.

And I love the du lab. That's one of my favorite stages. He does pop-ups all the time. How do you go about doing that? Have you ever done a pop-up? Not really to that extent. Like, I've done for brands, I have, you know what I mean? Where I'll do a surprise set for a brand, but never just like, hey, like, I'm going

to pop up with this coffee shop and play kind of thing. You know what I mean? I would always love to do that. I love playing something like that. And he got, he got leaked, obviously, before. So the stage was packed. But yeah, he does, he just, he can do that. You know, he can pull that.

It's crazy to show up somewhere randomly and then thousands of people show up. Okay. So then Saturday night comes up. Beaver hits the stage. I'm just going to close my eyes, man. Just like take me through it. How early did you get there? What's the build up?

He comes on stage. He's playing. Like, is your phone out the whole time? Is it not out the whole time? Just laid on me for a little bit. So luckily, they're actually actually. I was a little frustrated. There were a lot of people I wanted to see kind of like before Beber and even during

Bieber, but I was like, no, not going to happen. So the strokes were playing before Beaver. I was like, let's go to the strokes. So we went to the strokes. We posted up in VIP pretty close like the fence area. And we watched the strokes. And then there was an hour break between the strokes and Beber and we didn't move. We laid down, me and you laid down and took a, we literally fell asleep.

We took a nap. There are people walking over us around us. You know how it is. But we were like, we're not giving up this spot. And then, you know, the energy starts in the, you know, turn the lights off. the energy starts in the crowd. And he opened up with one of his swag songs, which was great, actually,

because I feel like he opens up with his banger, like, you know, or like one of his oldies. He'll blow the top off and you can't recover from that. So I like the way he started it. He kind of went into, he played like four songs of swag. And people were going,

still going crazy for swag. It was great. And then he threw in stay with Kid Leroy popped up. And he threw it. Everybody went crazy because it was like a hint of like what to come. Went crazy. It was so fun. And then what was interesting.

about this set was he went acoustic for about four songs. I went acoustic for about four songs. I didn't mind it. I was getting like the crowd. We were getting a little restless, you know what I mean? And then it got to the point was like, what if he only does this?

Like what if he doesn't play his old stuff? You know, how is he going to swing that? So people were getting a little restless. People were starting to sit down, that kind of thing. Hallelujah, acoustically, was incredible. He actually started to get really emotional and cry during it, which he was feeling it, you know? And I'll say up to that point,

I was like, this has been good, but like, if he ends now or it's going to be a flop. I was like, if he doesn't continue and then could play some of his old stuff, this is going to be a flop. And then the whole time, he had his laptop, which I thought, I was like, oh, this is kind of cool. Like, this is fun. He was basically live streaming. People were commenting and he'd pull it up every once in a while. I was like, oh, that's a fun play on it. Like, it's cool.

I don't think people were actually picking the songs, but like, it was fun to, like, you know, have the whole act of it. And then he whips up YouTube. and I genuinely think he actually was pulling songs up on YouTube and playing them because there was lag and there was like kids a couple times he was like, damn, Wi-Fi. You know what I mean? Yeah, it was like,

it was kind of interesting, but then all of a sudden he pulls up to the laptop and he plays the one and, or sorry, play baby, plays baby and the place goes bonkers. And for the next 35 minutes, 30, 35 minutes, he played only his songs, his old songs. And to the point where he played like his YouTube sing-alongs when he was like sick at an year's old, which I thought was so cool. I actually got weirdly emotional when one of them, because he would like, I think the coolest part about the whole experience in his set, it truly felt like he was healing like in a weird way.

Like it really felt like he was acknowledging his past and what he went through. But then also being like, this is who I am now. I respect who I was. but like I respect who I am now as well and so I love that in an artist like I like artists who don't completely just like that was me then that's not me anymore I'll never be that again I'm not going to play my old songs

that you know that you like I'm not going to do that but he he embraced that and I think the way he sang over his old like kid voice it was amazing it was so cool the way he was singing and then he would still sing and the way he'd look at himself in his videos it just seemed like he was almost admiring it like wow like that was was cool. It is pretty wild. I'm here now, you know, playing this, the highest paid artist

of all time at Coachella, but that's where I started. Like, it was a really cool moment. And he played probably through Bing. I mean, he played the karate kid's song, you know, that he did, he played every old song I could want him to play and the crowd went crazy. And I felt, I got goosebumps like the whole time because I've been a believer since the beginning. So it was really cool. And then he finished with a couple of swag. And then he finished with Davies and the fireworks went off. And I personally felt, I know there's been a little bit of mixed,

you know, some mixed reviews here and there. Like, oh, he just pulls up YouTube and plays and he's fucking, you know, looks like he's homeless up there and there's no band, there's no dancing or whatever. But like that was him. I enjoyed it. I 10 out of 10 for me.

10 out of 10, probably that and Lady Gaga last year, the two best performances I've seen at Gojillo. Well put. You walked us through the whole thing. I loved it. I wish I was there to experience it. People are talking about how genius it is

about just how he thought of really his life cycle like you said clearly he was acknowledging the life cycle of like him as a little kid uploading things on YouTube and he's showing that and singing that and getting emotional to it but then you tie into like that kid who uploaded things on YouTube got found by Scooter Braun who was in control of all these aspects of his life Bieber obviously has been through a ton of trauma a ton of drama he sold all of that all of his whole catalog of music and he's not supposed to be able to play those songs and the only way

that he can play him is he pulls him up on YouTube is singing along to him and so he did a $10 million deal to be at Coachella. He had a laptop and a mic and a camera and he got to keep all the money from it and didn't have to pay out anyone so it was like it was a really nice

like fuck you like that's my work I'm still here I'm creative genius. It kind of goes when he played at the Grammys when he got up and he made the beat he sang the song and he walked off and it's just like he his aura man he is just building this aura about himself and it was so amazing to see and i was going to ask you like as you walked out of there was it was it like oh my god jesson bhaer's best or was it like people being critical off the hop like uh no actually i think the energy was so uh most of the critic you know

critiqueness or one of some of the constructive criticism if you will of it has come from people who watched it at home maybe um um And like people who weren't there. Like people who just heard, oh, he pulled up a laptop or saw videos of him like laying on the ground singing, you know, with no like stage. You know what I mean? But like, if you were there, I haven't heard so many people who were there be like, oh, that was a flop. I've heard some be like, oh, you know, it wasn't my favorite of all time. But that's fine.

You know what I mean? But I didn't see anybody be like, that sucked at all. But I've seen people on social say that. I've seen a lot of the comparison, right? Christina Carpenter, her set was just like as far as like, theater. Dancing at theatrics, yeah. the fountain out of the car. But, like, that's not Beaver.

You know what I mean? If Beber did that, I'd be like, what the hell is this? You know, it used to be him, but it's not him anymore. He's not going to be up there dancing around with backup dance. That's just not who he is, you know? He's very on stage. Even Gee called it at one point. He's like very Kanye on stage.

It's just him, fog, dope lighting and like him just being like moody. You know what I mean? Swag. Yeah, swaggy. Exactly. So, no, everything I wanted out of Beavercella and his performance, that was it. Like that's what I want. So I enjoyed it immensely.

Amazing. Well, listen, 30 minute Thursdays, it's creeping up on the 30 minute mark. I love the recap of that. I love the recap of two friends. I love the recap a little bit of what's going on in your life. Listen, Jason, your work trip, man. I don't know if you should come back from that because we're two dads here. He just got back from Coachella an hour ago.

You guys brought Heath with you. I was up at 3.45 a.m. this morning. I had a double connecting flight with my three-year-old, my four-month-old. came back, went to work, kids are down to bed, we're hopping on the ones and twos on this night here and Blake, I just want to say

that thank you so much for hopping in the last second. Always appreciate you having you on. Literally couldn't have been a perfect person to come on and do this 30 minute Thursday. So I appreciate you and thank you very much. Good to see you, man. Love it.

That's a wrap. Leave five stars, comments, all that good stuff. I'm sure if you leave a nice thing to Jay, he's going to send something your way from his influencer closet. that he always talks about. So Jay, hope you're enjoying work. See you next week. 30 minute Thursdays. This message is brought to you by the Capital One VentureX card. VentureX offers the premium

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