Welcome to Episode 109 of the Bandhive Podcast.

It is time for the episode of the Bandhive podcast. My name is James Cross, and I'm not here with Matt Hose of Alive in Barcelona, but we have another very special guest, a return guest, Brandon Cunningham of Kawaii AF. How are you doing today, Brandon?

I'm doing good, James. Doing good. Glad to be back. Glad you will hit me up again. That's great to hear. Yeah, it's It's been so cool to see your progress. And for those who didn't listen way back. Two Episode 30 This is Episode 109. So that was literally like 80 episodes ago or 79 episodes ago. Brand was on the show to do a really special episode. How we can fight for racial justice in the rock scene. That was Episode 30. If anyone wants to hear it If you haven't yet, I definitely recommend it.

Go to Bandhive dot rocks slash 30. But today, Brandon, you're actually here to talk about your band, which is also really important and, uh, a little bit more of a light hearted fun topic than when we were discussing last time. So first of all, can you just give us, like, a little catch up on what's been going on with Kawaii AF in the last year and a half since we talked to you, man, No problem. Yo, this year has been crazy. Okay, So positive. Super positive things.

Just like last week we hit over 100 K followers on tiktok. That's huge. You're already at 109 k now. Exactly. So you're getting nine k in a week since then. That's amazing. That's what I'm saying. Thank you. Like Yo, So when we started to talk, you know, however it goes like like almost two years, we talked about 100 k and how important that is when you're at 60 followers that seems like so far away that seems like so far away. And we were stuck at 70 something for a long time. It felt like it's like we couldn't bridge that hump just like hit a plateau.

Yeah, and we can talk about that plateau, but yeah, we've been on the up and up again. We've been making some really cool new tiktok friends and other like content creators working with them. Also, we have our first ever collab slash feature for a song that I don't want to say. It's coming out soon, but we're definitely working on it. It is coming, but productions wild because there was that hurricane that you know, roost everything. And so that definitely set, uh, recording back quite a bit, but nothing that's not manageable.

We're still almost finished with also the album. We're almost finished with a debut album, and so that's crazy. It's I don't have to sing on the album anymore, And that's crazy to say, because we've been in that limbo stage of always recording for the album forever. And so on the last day of me recording, I was like, I don't have to sing for the day you ever again That's it. That's history. Yeah, done with that part. That's like Cool now Album number two. Hey, you know what it is in my head.

It is in my head. I did have a lot of things playing, but right now it's all about the first album and, like, you know, getting that rollout started. What else? I just want to jump in here while you're thinking and say We're recording this on December 4th and the episode comes out on December 28th. So one happy New Year's to everybody because it's going to be New Year's Eve in a couple of days unless you're listening to this later in time because that's the beauty of podcasts.

But secondly, I would be very surprised if you don't hit 110 k By the time this episode Airs, because you only need, like, what, 700 more? I think so. At this rate we're talking about you hit 100 K last week and you're at 100 and nine now. By the time this episode airs, it's gonna be, I hope, a lot more like 1 15, 1, 21 25 or, who knows, like knock on wood. I'm not jinxing anything here but fingers crossed. That's the goal that's the goal. Little little tidy goals because, you know, we could say, Oh, man, A million are come on, guys but that's nothing.

About a million right now. Let's get 250 And then we can, you know, think about 200 and all that stuff. If you break down your goals, it's much more reasonable and it's not as stressful. I'm checking how many followers Matt cultural has right now. He's got 1.5. So if Matt couple has 1. 5, I think you guys can do 1. 5 like long term. And I'm also secretly hoping that Matt Cultural is that collab you're working on because, I mean, that would be amazing. Actually, I've got to be secretive about the Collab. We are collaborating with another up and comer like us.

Her name is Kiana Nicole. She is a trap metal flash emo rap metal artist Man. She's so many things. It's so hard to put her in a genre, which is awesome. But yeah, she's really cool. She's out in L. A. Which is another reason why we got to get to L. A. Because when our song drops were definitely perform it together, and that's cool. And she's cool and everyone should definitely check out Chiana Nicole. And while I'm at it, check out her partner. In course, 666. Who knows when the audience is watching this podcast?

But as of right now, they're like awesome music video for like their song that they've been hyping up forever is going to be dropping soon. And that's dope. I'm excited for that. Definitely Look out for that. I'm not gonna stop talking about it when it drops. Very, very excited. But man on my side fair want to hear our song together. It is, It's a banger and who knows what it's gonna do? Well, I'm looking forward to that, for sure. And just so anyone who is listening if you want to get all of these links to the different profiles to the songs, once they're out, all that stuff will be in the show notes.

At Band, I've got rocks slash 109. That's just the numbers 109, and you can get all the links there first of all, obviously, for brand and Kawaii AF, but also for all the other profiles that are mentioned We're going to have them all in there. One nice little directory where you can just go like tap. Follow tap, follow tap, follow. Make sure you follow everybody. Give them some likes and comments and stuff and, uh, Help get Kawaii like 1. 5 million. Yeah. So I remember Brandon a few years ago. I reached out to you.

It's like, Hey, so like, what's going on? Like if you need help with Facebook or instagram and stuff like that, I can give you a couple of pointers because I'd seen, like, your Facebook and Instagram or like they're doing good, but like whatever. And you're like, Oh, we're actually doing really well on tiktok. And it's like I've heard of tiktok. But I don't have tiktok. What is this? And I looked I was like, I think you're at, like, five or 10-K followers at the time. This was probably mid 2019, and just to see the difference from then to now, Now I have tiktok, and that's why we're doing this episode.

Because the for you Page showed me your profile is like, Oh, man, like they're still killing it. Okay, what's that journey been like, from the start to now. And I guess the first question is initially what made you decide to create a tiktok in the first place? Because you did it before. It was cool. That's true. O g status, baby. The Imo hipster line is being blurred here. That's right. I just want to point this out. Okay, so we made us get tiktok with this. We were struggling band.

We were all just scrambling trying to figure out what to do. Should we play more shows? Should we speed up the process of getting music out and think about all these things and oh, man, we should be on YouTube. How are we gonna get our Facebook Pays to 100 K followers? How are we gonna fight Facebook ads? All these things are scrambling in our heads. Meanwhile, our man behind the scenes Brandon Bordelon or Waffle Bordelon, depending on if you know him, he is like a business visionary. So he's, you know, seeing a struggle.

Meanwhile, he's doing he's doing his own thing. But we talk every day and waffles like, Hey, bro, you know tiktok right in mind y'all This is like 20 like 19 or late 18. And I say, Um, yeah, what about it? You're talking about that lame app where we're just lipsticks and dances. Are you talking about musically? Get out of my face with that while we talk about Tiktok right now, everyone's making fun of Tiktok. Of course, I'm part of the bandwagon. And while I was like Listen, listen shut up for a minute, Alright?

Listen, I've been scrolling on Tiktok, bro. These kids are really funny and I'm like, Alright, sure they are. And so what? We'll put it into terms that only I would get, He said. Brandon, these kids are like 16 year old us. And I'm like, because here's the thing about 16 year old me and waffles that we were balls to the wall. Creative like we were doing everything and anything that was different from anything or what our peers were doing. We were new rounds kids. We were adult swim kids.

We were YouTube kids. We knew the Internet and the Internet wasn't cool yet only through MySpace and Facebook or whatever. But it wasn't like it wasn't what we know the Internet right now, so we were always had a curve with that. So when he told me that I'm like, Okay, I'm listening because by the way, my mantra when we're talking to Waffle is shut up and listen to him because usually the things that he says are right on the money. Even if it doesn't make sense right now, it's gonna make this like, either next month, next year, two years, five years, You don't know, but just listen to him.

And so I did. Okay, I'll check it out. And then I'm looking. I'm scrolling and it's true. It's very It's very, very funny, and I'm having a great time. But I see something. I'm seeing a clear trend Of patterns, and I'm seeing email content. Now, remember, everyone, this is this is late 2018, The email resurgence that we're seeing did not happen yet, so I'm gonna take you back to that time. When Kawaii started in 2016, EMO and pop punk were bad words. If you were a band and said you were that you're not getting anything, the only people who are getting any type of love in that genre were like, you know, like like the underground Kings like the story so far Neck Deep, Knuckle puck or in D and E D M. That's it.

Or wrap lots of rap. If you're a rapper, you're you're you're probably having a good time. But if you were early 2000 styling pop punk band like us no love zero None. There's a time where we were even calling ourselves that. We just said punk rock so we would get onto shows like Oh, yeah, no, we're a punk rock man. So I'm seeing something really different because in my eyes kids don't care the Imo anymore. And if they do, is imma rap like the great Little Peep Little Tracy Ghost Main.

You know, the Soundcloud rap I'm seen. So I'm seeing all these kids lip sinking to, like, Fall Out Boy and Good Charlotte. And I'm like, Wait, these are kids. It's one thing to be in, like your mid twenties early thirties, going to demo night, sharing nostalgic pictures of yourself in 2007. But it's a whole other thing. If kids are doing it because the kids are doing it. I mean, it's cool. It means that it's it's getting an audience again and I'm seeing that ticked up. And I'm like, Yo, if we as a band, blow this up, we could be onto the next wave.

We wouldn't be a nostalgia act and we wouldn't be trying to attract like, hey, 31 year old by our T shirt like we would be a part of kids like development. Like when I found simple plan. I was 13 discipline to this day. So I was like, Okay, this is our chance And waffle always told us in meetings, find the emerging platform and own it, especially find the one that no one is messing with because YouTube is oversaturated, Facebook is already saturated. Instagram. It's oversaturated, and no one goes on band camp.

Don't talk about band camp. Sad but true. I'm sure band camps Traffic is like every day of the month, first Friday, and it's just like five people for the rest of the month. Poor band camp. I love the platform, but it's not a popular platform outside the D. I y seen, at least Yeah, and so I was like, I okay and the plan was set. Get big on tiktok Rock that platform make that our vine because at the time, like people were still begging for buying to come back.

And so I'm like, man, forget about buying coming back. No, actually, no, I didn't say that. Did you also forget about buying coming back? Find the next thing to talk to? The next thing Brandon is the next thing. And you always told me this because well, who never wants to be the complete mind? He wants me to fly, and he's like, he's like Brandon. I don't know how to make it the next thing, but you guys make it the next thing, and I'm like, Thanks, I'll take that and run with it over the best and one painful early morning, This two a.m.

three a m. I'm scrolling like I was for about a week, and I come across this video from his kid named Simon Trip. The skit was him being a band guy from like 2007, like writing a song and you know, he's like So guys, I think go like dirt. I need you dirt. I want you dirty icing. And then and then I adore you. Oh, running one down. I'm like that's hilarious. And so, like. You know, I like it and I shared to the band page. Hey, guys, look, that's how we come up with songs.

And then I went to the comments section and I saw hundreds of comments being like, Oh my God, make this a song. Oh my God, why does it little keep up? Wait a minute, Yo, I would listen to this. I'm like, That's cool. And then a light bulb came into my head. I'm like he's not an artist. We're artists. We come into a real song. Uh, and so then the next few days was me just talking in a million miles an hour. To people who don't go on Tiktok.

I had to convince my other band members to understand tiktok, even though I didn't even fully understand it yet. I was like guys, blah, blah, song, blah, blah, blah, blah. Trend, blah, blah, blah, blah big. And they're like Sure, dude, whatever I'm like, just go with me on this And mind you we as a band did not even have a tiktok yet. I was on my personal account as a band. We're not a personal account yet So anyway, they listen to me and we take this man snippet right, a full song and, like, you know, try to hype it up.

And so what I did was I made, like, a little, like, hype up thing by just dreading the video and simply saying, Hey, I'm making a song with this Stay tuned That got some love. You know, there are people in the comment section We were like, Oh, my God, tell me when it's out. And I'm like, cool. And I kept up with them and it took us maybe, like a month or two to get it, you know, all done. Because we all did it, like, you know, like in house.

Correent me if I'm wrong, but this was 2007 called. They want their genes back. Correent, James. Okay, so that'll be lengthen the shout outs as well. I was like, I know this song. I just love hiding things up. So, yes, it was 2007 college. They want their genes back, and we thought, Okay, how we gonna promote it? And people said we're talking about it's not already there. Like what? It was like I figured put out like because we usually over think things. And I was like, here it goes like, uh and so like, all right.

So because they made a tiktok being like, Hey, guys, I'm back. It's out and I like So I set that out and then I have found one of the messages that someone said months ago about reminding them. And I did tell him like, Hey, this, uh, songs out And she was like, Awesome, I'm so excited. Yeah, And then I went to work. I went to work that the next day Yeah, it was like the next day and at 12:30 p.m. I'm at work, I'm doing dishes and I go to you know what by the bathroom to take my phone like I normally do.

And my instagram notifications are blowing up and my tiktok is blowing up and I'm like, What's happening? And so I go and see what's happening. The girl I messaged about Hey, this song is out and her being excited for it. She made her own video hyping up that this song was real, And that video is what made 2007 called. They want their genes back on soundcloud get over 20K and in less than 24 hours. And I want you all to understand that being a emo pop punk band in 2019 on Soundcloud, getting those numbers is huge.

And not only that, that's bonkers like right, like like a pop punk band. And when I was excited about it, I went to one of the Facebook pop punk groups I was still a part of. I'm not on any anymore, but at the time, Hey, guys songs out and we're doing well And people were like on soundcloud. Yeah, you body that get out of here, You know it's real, like That's how bonkers it was that a pop punk band getting over it was still climbing up. It was still climbing up, and all the comments were positive, which is also nuts because folks kids won't hold back if they don't have two kids have nothing to lose.

So if they wanted to tell me, Hey, this song sucks. Kill yourself. They would do it with no problem. So getting overwhelming positive reactions to a new song from a new artist they don't know is bananas. It's like It's genuine, It's genuine love. And then when we thought it was over when we thought that, Okay, it's gonna stop at like 20 K, and that's awesome. Someone else who was a fan of that song made it to a sound. We didn't make it to a sound we know how to yet they made it into a sound.

And then a few months later, that sound went mini viral to wear that like big tiktokers We're using that sound our song in their Tic Tac's That's so sick someone used our song as their like their follower Count Milestone video of them taking a little snippet out of each day leading up to them. You know, getting how many followers. So that's like months of just listening to our song that's in It was insane. And here is the sad part. Folks, we had no way to gain personally from this because, uh, it wasn't our tiktok that, uh, we didn't have a tic tac.

Uh, we had no way of like capturing that spark. We were just too excited to be business minded. Which was? One of the lessons that we had to learn early on is that you can have success and in this day and a success can come by pretty easy. But what should you during that success is what will, you know, propel you so, man, If only we had the business mindset that we have now when it happened, man, who knows who knows where we were, where we were, we would be.

But that was what would ignite us to get a banned account and to get better at tic tac, which was a whole other monster on its own. Yeah. I mean, that really sucks that you weren't able to capitalize on that. Really? But you're clearly doing something right, because you're able to sustain that and you're at 110 K almost now. So, like, there's something there that people are following along with their following you for a reason. Because, like you were saying the younger generation, which I mean, I feel bad.

I'm 28. You're also 28 I believe, right? Saying that makes me feel so old. It's like we're talking about people 10 years younger than us. Maybe, but the point being is they wouldn't follow if they're not interested in it. so, like, that's huge. And the people that we were able to grip during the heat are still with us today. So even though we couldn't capture because so many kids videos were getting like 60 K 90 k likes on every video with our song and did not have our name in it on the sound that's brutal.

I had to, like, go into common section like, Hey, that's us. What's up? Something like Oh, that's awesome. And you know, the day would, like, follow and like, you know, like we're still with us. Others we lost along the way because we couldn't capture it. That's That's the game. That's the way it goes. But yeah, no, no, Like that did give us so much like Spark. We're like, OK, we're doing something right, because at the time, emo bands weren't blowing up yet. Yet that would happen around 2020.

Yeah, well, so let's jump into that and talk about the journey you mentioned. You hit the 70 k plateau where you were there for quite some time. When was that? Okay, So the 70 k plateau was sometime around January. This was during our first viral hit now, Before this viral hit, we did have videos that did well, we did, you know, band related things. Like in terms of, like, skits. Those did well. And you guys recognized by, like, farm boys like management and stuff like the ones that follows us.

That's huge. Yes, it is. Thank you. We saw, like, little bitty successes, but our big viral hit was when hopeless records reached out to us. When dear Maria, count me in by all time low got big on tiktok through, you know, some kids screaming out it wasn't a face, the lifestyle. And so police records, you know, saw that we, you know, we're doing pretty well. And like, Hey, how are y'all to, you know, do something with that sound And we're, like, cool. And so we did. And oh, I forgot to mention a big part of this was that we created created a big, big word and people are gonna come at me.

We popularized green screen hot topic videos. That was a trend that we found by ourselves. Okay, so I'll make a timeline. Our first big hit was me and Ricky doing an anime opening that we created that did well and I was very exciting. But then a bunch of you know, nothing. Nothing, nothing. And then and then we made our first, like, successful fall boy video. And I was just hopin disco video in a little bitty bitty bitty here a little bit of here, a little bit of here.

And then I made my first hot topic video. Meanwhile, at Lake, that was hot topic. That was the first one specific. What we mastered is authenticity, accuracy and, um, specifics. Our slogan on tiktok is welcome to take topic home of the most accurate Imo means we weren't doing broad things were like in as much as possible. So when when someone sees it like, you know, I don't know, anyone knew this like like like like, we weren't just being like, hey, guys like MTR like No, it was like, Hey, guys, you know this specific thing is like yo, and it's a lot of people anyway, So we popularized that I haven't seen anything before it.

I I do think that I did create that trend of really hot topic, which we see a lot now, but anyway, hello Bigger saw that saw that we did pretty well with that. And so Oh, I was the one with with all time left and that was our first megahit. That was our first million and then two million. That's the one that had hot topic commenting on to it like directly. And that was like the first, like Big Monster we were. We were number one on the delivery, coming in sound for a long time, and that's so freaking cool.

Who knows how many times I listened to that song like as a teenager? But anyway, after that, another learning experience. We were too hyped on that. We're like, Okay, cool. We can just keep rolling with this and and And we had this idea of only uploading if we think it's a monster banger, which means we were like, Okay, we can rock with the video for like, a week or two weeks and because we used to do every day like like, you know, in the early earlier days.

But then we were okay. We can do that's not necessary. We know how necessary it was yet, Anyway, we got way too confident with that whole banger only aspect because we were always fighting the algorithm. Any TIKTOK creator can tell you about the algorithm and how you don't know it. Like people can upload quick tips. So I'm getting big on Tiktok. But that quick tip is going to be null and void in a week because it's ever changing. It's always changing the game. You don't know what tips are going to help you, so it's kind of just the wild, Wild West and you learn as you go and with the whole time little video.

We're like, OK, bakers only because we see what works. And that is when we hit our big plateau. Nothing that we were putting out was popping. And then we're like, doubting ourselves and, you know, like trying to figure out, like other other things, which makes you do other trends. And like if I could give anyone some advice if they want to do this, trial and error is part of the game. But when you find your niche, you found your niche, and you should like stick with that niche, and you know that might seem limiting.

I thought it was I didn't want to do anymore. Hot topic video because I thought that was gonna get old. Like our band stuff got old. I ran out of possibly jokes like and I'm not gonna keep, you know, like just searching for Broadway jokes I've made already. Like, I know what it's like to watch a creator do the same thing forever. It gets annoying. And so I'm not I'm not dumb. I'm not gonna do that. Which I wasn't wrong. But I wasn't also right either because it wasn't I had to keep doing hot topic Big Brain.

Rocco came in again. He was like, Bro, don't you realize that you're creating a universe and I'm like, What do you mean, bro? It doesn't just stop with hot topic. You can create the entire mall experience. And I'm like, Yo, he did it again. Yes, he did it again. And it's all for your entertainment. Exactly. F y e, baby. Sorry. I can't help dropping bad puns. That's my brand. Hey, good brand. What do you say? Niche. But like me being like, Well, guys, I can't keep doing hot dog forever, so we gotta find something else.

It wasn't that he was like, bro. You found it. You just weren't using it properly. You're stuck in this. I got a hot topic. I do hot topic. It's like No people are embracing this because there's just two things the two are insisting that we have. We have people our age who want to reminisce on the past, and we have kids who didn't get to experience this, who want to, and they're experiencing it through our lens through our eyes, like we became the that 70s show of EMO.

Oh, that is going to be one of the highlight clips from this episode. I can guarantee it. So I found a niche. It wasn't it wasn't emo bands because that's a ceiling. It wasn't even hot topic memories. That's a ceiling. But the mall experience is not a ceiling, and you can bring other people like you can like like coal ab easier because it's so open. And that's kinda what we're experiencing right now is that we've I found what works again and I'm I'm using the tools I learned on the way to try to make sure that we don't plateau again.

It's gonna happen again. I'm not done. It's gonna happen again because that's how the algorithm works. But right now I trust myself again because that's another big thing is that I had some negative, you know, like outside talk getting into my head. So it's about being confident in the content that you can create. Yeah, being confident and having, you know, like no creative blockage, people who are on your side, people who like get what you're doing and what you help. And we have that tenfold. Right now, there's no more negative influences, like clouding the creative process.

I can work and work efficiently, and that's that's what about We have found a workflow. We have found work consistency. We have found the schedule, which was things that did not exist back then. It was just like, Hey, um, come when you can, I guess. And oh, I don't think I could do that day and all this stuff, but now we found two days that work for us. We do check out every Monday and Thursday and we make as much as we can so we can put them out during the week until its next time to shoot.

But not doing too much, because with trends with trends, it's gonna go like that. Here is the Brandon Cunningham choir formula. It's find a trend, but don't do it completely. Find a way to filter it through our niche that works with us. I don't know how to how to how to get example of this because doctors are so specific. But like, don't do like paint by the numbers like don't just copy and all right, that's the video. Still be creative with it, So be original. But also go with what's working for other people.

Don't cut and paste. You take it, you copy it and then do the remix and you're like, This is what we're doing, right? Yep, yep. Which is exactly what to talk about. Stock is about creating from, you know, other creativity. That's a platform, which is another thing that I gotta tell anybody who wants to do anything, really. But specifically, we're talking about tiktok if you're going to get a TikTok with a lot of people did during the pandemic, if you're going to try and use that as a as a tool, you have to learn that tool you can't just rely on like YouTube, like helpful tips or even, Just like kind of just doing whatever you want.

You got to spend some time knowing the language of the platform that you want to use their slang. There's angles, and that's for anything. YouTube has a language. Instagram has a language. Facebook has a language, every platform discord has language and gotta learn that language because kids, if they sense even a hint of bakery, they're gonna know they will not have to breathe. It's fake it. You gotta be really, To be honest, you gotta love what you're doing because they're gonna they're gonna figure you out. And the best way to being, you know, like, called out is I actually love it.

I spend time on tiktok when I'm not working like when I'm not looking for the next trend. I'm just like I go and talk to be entertained to laugh. I am tiktok audience as well as a creator. Same. I'm not a big creator like you, but I am the audience. It's a cool app, like I still scroll through instagram, especially stories. But like when I want to see something, for the most part, uplifting or funny, Tiktok is the go to guys like Instagram is just all my friends, which I mean I have great friends.

Don't get me wrong, not hitting on them but they're not posting like comedy stuff. Most of the time, if I want to see something funny or I want to go see cute dogs like the UPS and FedEx drivers that post dogs, that's like one of my favorite parts of tiktok. And then there's the stuff like what you're doing. Like the format kochel is doing, all the people are like, yeah, this is like life in the 2000's like Yep, that's sick. All that stuff is on tiktok. I don't see any of that on Instagram, Which on that note do you see value in those older platforms?

Like, do you think bands should be on those platforms? Or should you go all in on tiktok at least to give it a try? I'm gonna be real bands going TikTok. What are you doing? Come on. Like Okay. The crazy thing is that you can yell at bands or artists. Go on, tiktok, please. But you know you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make a drink. But like there's so much proof that this is it. That's a frustrating thing. Especially if people ask you Hey, what should I do?

And you're like, Oh, do this. Ah, but I don't want to do that. Then what are you asking me for? Yeah, that's the excuse of every local band ever who stays a local band. And then there's the bands like you who are like I don't know, but I mean, we'll try and look where it got you. Like you have 110,000 people following you on this platform. And then when you add in your other platforms like, I didn't look up the numbers for the other platforms because we're here to talk about Tiktok.

But you've got to have at least a couple 1000 more on those other platforms. When you add everything up, that's huge. How many local or regional bands can say that? That's like usually the point where, if you're that level, you have at least some kind of deal with an indie label like a real indie label, not your buddy who does tapes out of his garage or whatever, but you did it without that investment from an outside party. I mean, obviously, you had to deal with all time low or a hopeless records specifically.

But that wasn't like, Hey, we're going to give you money to go make a record. Like we want you to do this video for us. You know, that's very different from getting a label deal. And you made it happen. You built this yourself. Thank you. Yeah, me waffle have to have this thing to where that will be like, Hey, yo, can we, like, stop for a minute? Because we're always planning. We're always, you know, talking about the next step, but with a yo a yo a yo.

Right now we just, like, talk about how impressive this all is. And I'm like, huh? Like, bro, don't you realize that you are doing what other people haven't done? I'm like, Whoa, wait. Yeah, which is really, really crazy. I do not take for granted, because this is all I ever wanted to do. I always wanted to get big on the Internet. Like Like I Like I said, the new grounds kid, I was a YouTube kids. Meanwhile, who had a YouTube channel in high school that We were trying to get big, which I think could have happened, but it was high school, but this was the first holy holy crap like I did it like kids.

Kids tell me, Hey, this reminds me of Smash and I'm like Jesus, that's crazy. And and, like TikTok has made me, like become acquaintances with the bands that I I love. It's nuts. It's it opened all the doors. Bands, listen to me. Without TikTok, Kawaii would be nowhere. We would just be that local band. That's cool. If you want to be a local band, always stress that out. If you don't want to be famous, that's okay. Being in the band. Just a fun thing that you want to do with your friends on weekends.

That's cool. No hate to you at all. More power to you. I want to be prince. I wanna be I wanna be a rock star. I wanna be a pop star and I have no fear of saying that like I kind of used to because it's so crazy that the 20 tens made a stigma to where If you said you wanted to be a rock star, you were Like a bad person. How dare you want to have money for your work? How dare you want fame? You bad person, you but but now I'm like, man, I wanna be a rock star.

Always has always will want to be a rock star. That's it. And talk is given to me that because Tiktok became what MTV was in the 90s early thousands like I was there before little Nas X was the pop star he is. And that's insane, because when we were on tiktok Lil Nas X's song Old Town Road was on the radio. Yet it was just a really big trend on tiktok. It was not on the radio was a big, big trend, and not enough actually inspired me to be like, Yo, if you have a song that goes to a trend that could be it for you, that can like skyrocket you and it did.

I was correct because because the old town road happened. But then he didn't let himself become one under B. One of the biggest pop stars we have saying, What does a cat like like Like she was a meme artist with a move song But I saw I saw what they were doing because anyone who knows like trends and like studies, what made things happen are like little bitty gimmicks, but with a big plan behind it. Like Dota Cat wasn't. I'm gonna make a joke song and that's gonna be it for me.

Like, go there, I wanna be. I wanna be a pop star and then I'm gonna do it. Watch me. You gotta be on onto the next thing. Chicago wasn't big. Everyone made fun of it. Everyone said it was lame. I said it was like everyone said it was lame, the only people who who like they were weird kids who wanted one outlet. And that's exactly what happened. Because Tiktok is counterculture at a billion, it's it. And if you aren't on it right now, you're tripping because the next thing is about to happen.

We don't know what it is, but the next thing is happening right now, you gotta get on it. We gotta get on it like everyone's got to get on it. If you want to keep doing this because tiktok isn't gonna be forever, it's not. It just isn't because that's not how their networks like. We thought that my space was gonna be forever. We thought Facebook was gonna be forever. I mean, it is, but no one likes it. Yeah, And now it's just all going down in flames. Exactly.

That's Taylor Swift punch for the record. Oh, nice. What? That sounds like it's gonna be forever, You know, You get me. I I think you posted a Taylor Swift thing the other day, right? Or is that somebody else is probably why I love Okay. Yeah, well, I just I want to jump in and back You up here? Because what you were saying about little, not sex. I know little, not sex is big, But then I was watching the baseball playoffs, and like every other inning, there was an ad with a little not sex and Elton John And that made me realize, like, Wow, he is now at that level.

That is huge. And so, even though I knew he was like a household name, that's what really set in stone for me, like, Okay, that's insane. So for anyone listening, who you know was in a bubble like I was and I didn't watch the World Series or the NLCS or whatever. That's how big little not sex is. He's an ad with Elton John. That's bonkers. That's insane. He's that caliber. And, yeah, a big part of why we gotta be on Tiktok was the fact that we captured a market that wasn't big on a platform that not hit its peak yet.

So we got in at a good time. It wasn't the best time, though, but if we were the guys in, like, a year before, man, who knows where we would have been? But in terms of like baseball, we slide into home. There's a bunch of dust. Are they safe? Are they out? It's safe. Like who could have gone to replay exactly like I would not have want to have started take time during the pandemic, which was when a lot of artists hopped on a lot of artists on Tiktok during the pandemic because there's nothing else to do.

I would not want to have been there for that. I would much rather struggle to fight a plateau versus versus trying to start but not discourage anybody. Anyone can do this. If you start today. There are no limits do not get discouraged because that's that's what they want you to do. I don't know who they is, but don't get discouraged like do it. You can get big right now if you start. If you start and you and you are consistent and you learn the platform, you can do it.

Any man can do it. I'm still seeing it happen. I'm scrolling through Tiktok, and I'm seeing it like a new artist every day, every day. But new arts are being found and discovered everyday on Tiktok all the time on acoustic songs. They're not big songs. They're not even high production. Some of them is just them singing into a WalMart mike, a WalMart ear piece. But if it hits the pocket, if it hits the algorithm just right and the people seeing that video that is at 100 K likes or even more, and they're getting offer deals.

MTV it is MTV. It is equivalent to the headbangers ball. It is that it is TRL is everything because there's so many nations. I'm just talking about mind the email alternative, But there's all their niches. There's the Indian ish. There's a There's a folk need to pop the hip hop nation all the niches because tiktok what you see on tiktok is dedicated to what you like on tiktok like your tiktok experience. It didn't from my completely you go on your for you, page, you're gonna see dogs.

But if you go in mind, you're probably see like some kid playing with mustard. I don't know. I'm gonna tell you my my niche, my niche on tiktok is weird. Emo alternative gay tiktok That is my tiktok. That's where the good stuff is. I keep it that way, but you can find your niche just gotta, you know, taking the time to talk, to talk what you want. And don't give it to you and you'll stay there. Yeah, I want to highlight a couple of things here. You've already talked about this.

I have it written down as a question. But your personality is such a big part of your brand. And you already mentioned about being authentic and how the audience on tiktok can tell when someone isn't authentic. So I just wanted to circle back and touch on that and say, you know, that is so incredibly important. And even for me. When I look at tiktok a lot of stuff, you know, it's staged like whatever, but when they're trying to pass it off as real, like you go to the comments and like nine out of 10 comments like, Oh, this is stage.

This is totally made up like no way this ever happened. And it's like, Yeah, people don't like seeing that it gets a ton of engagement. So maybe the algorithm is like, Okay, cool. Show this to more people and you get more engagement. But it's probably not going to get to follow, at least from what I assume about the platform being somebody who doesn't know, I think what you say about authenticity is what gets you the follows right? I'm gonna give you one of the biggest example that happened this year with the kids figuring something out.

So we're popping fan with colored haired members and people love us. A band called Tramp Stamps happened. Do you know about tramp stamps? Yes, I remember the scandal about how everyone thought their industry plants. Yeah, yeah, they got the hammer. Those kids went in on them. And, like, I remember seeing a trance dance video and you know, he's doing well. They were doing well numbers, and I was like, Wow, I'm like that song. But whatever I kept going, I kept going. I'm like, Okay, cool, whatever. Because at this point, I do try to support any movement towards emo and pop punk.

Even in this way, I don't particularly care for I want to support it because, Hey, if someone else eats, we're gonna eat to the 2010s was so much of no, that's not correct. Good. Another face. And and that's why rock didn't do anything in the 2010. That's not a story, but yeah, So, like I was saying, you know, like the whole tramp stamps thing And then people were like, Oh, yeah, they're industry plants. And when it comes to me with with with industry plant tree, that's such a that's such a broad thing.

And there's so many, like, you know, factors to consider. Like driving Trance dance was fake. I'm like like they didn't really hide the fact that they had industry things. They just didn't word things very nicely. They also didn't react well to the drama, which is a whole other thing that that they don't teach you when you're when you're becoming a you know, influencer is the way you handle drama can make or break you and the way they handle the drama and one of the best and and the people one.

And I'm pretty sure tramp stamps is no more today. Today I'll talk. And I saw you know who I thought was one of the members was like, but separate just, you know, just kinda just like starting over. I'm like, Hey, do that tramp stands person. But I You know, I let it be that in my business, but yeah, authenticity will always win, even if it doesn't seem like it. Like it at first, even if it doesn't seem like it. At first, I was like, Okay, this person is fake, but they're winning.

Okay, Check back on them, check back on them. They're probably not going to win. But I've been saying this for, like, you know, maybe like a few months, the real will rise, the fake will fall. This is how it is. Even if it doesn't seem like it. At first, it seems like the fake artist with the fake a story with the most fly to everything is just winning the numbers, winning the comments, winning the accolades, winning. I said, like, Charlie, Is she waiting? But check back on them.

They're probably not gonna make it. And if you blow up fast, you're probably gonna, like, you know, flicker out faster. Like if it wasn't real, Which is why even when it seems like Oh, man, our numbers aren't growing as fast as it did a month ago. I gotta remind myself, Hey, hey, that is how it is. The fact that we didn't blow up two years ago is a good thing because we weren't ready yet. I'm fine to rise. I just want to, you know, gain all the information that I can.

So when it does happen, we'll be ready. We're getting to that point. We're getting to the point where it's like the success that we want was offered to us, like right now we would be able to be like, Okay, here's next. Like we would have a plan. We would have some plan in motion because it's getting to that point. Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, first of all, I totally agree with what you say about. If there's that meteoric rise, then it's just gonna quickly flicker, flicker, fade.

But the other thing is in the music industry in the back end of the industry, when it comes to things like somebody gets asked to go out on the road for the first time. You fake it till you make it like you can't teach somebody how to tour. You can teach them what to expect, and that's what we try to do here with Bandhive. But that first tour anybody does fake it till you make it. And a lot of the music industry is like that. But with your fans, you just cannot do that because you're going to get called out.

I think Brynn, you and the band are spot on and what you're doing. It's really cool to see this rise on any platform. Getting 100,000 followers in two years is amazing. That's huge. That's got to be like the top 5% of creators on Tiktok for that rise. Like, obviously, it's not 1. 5 million like Matt Cultural, but he had that audience from Vine already. You guys started basically from scratch. And that's what's amazing about it. Thank you. Yeah, that's what we always try to remind ourselves. Because, man, do we get in our heads.

I I ain't even gonna lie to you, America. I'm not even gonna lie to you. I'm not even gonna lie to you, man. Man, some days you wake up and we're like, Everything's on fire. Make it stop. But, you know, like that's just that's just the plight of not only an artist, but as a human. But I always say, If I feel like my world is on fire, it's probably about to be put out soon. This is just the worst part. But I was talking about the stuff I'm going to get out because I was in that stage before we blew up again.

Like before. We had to make some changes to how we do things, because because there was a back to the drawing board. Like meeting there's like, Yo, some things aren't working. We got to figure out what works and go with it. And a lot of it was we knew the right thing to do, but we're fighting it because there's always that part that is always there, Like, I don't know. I don't doubt it. Y'all don't doubt. He's got to go with this man like this. The universe will tell you you're doing something right.

And universal tell you we're doing something wrong. So our rise has been It's such a wild ride. And I'm very happy about, like, the fan base that we have that we have, Like, the TikTok fan base is, like, so devoted and so very, very nice. And, uh, another thing that I did to, you know, try to capture that audience was like, You know, uh, we had the Instagram Thursday live stream that was, you know, every Thursday it's at the time of this recording it has stopped for right now, I do want to get back to it, but we have to take a break from it because we were, you know, getting that that dreaded creative burnout.

Especially right now, the holidays are happening as well. So things get a little crazy to pile on top of that burnout. Yeah, so that was part of the, you know, the drawing board, you know, aspect. But I still do communicate with my fans like every day. It really is a community, and it's a community that goes beyond us. It was really cool. They have their own group chat, its own animal that does things without us, and that's really cool. But yeah, so by the way, they're really, really about about the whole, like, no life.

And right now, when I totally, totally understand, because we have been, like every Thursday for, like, two years. But, you know, I'm just trying to find, you know, the next way to to, you know, communicate with them because, like scheduling right now, it just is what's stopping that. But yeah, like there's still, like, open communication that goes in with the community that I love very, very much. My favorite part of this is commenting back. My favorite part of when a video does well are the comments because I get to buy with people.

I didn't make this video in hopes of just getting big. I made this video in hopes of, you know? Yeah, doing well, but also to to talk about the thing that that video was about. Like I love talking about hot topic. I love talking about invaders, and I love talking about bands. That's what it does to me. Like creating a filter to talk to people about things that everyone around me our time talking about. Yeah, it goes back to just being on brand for your personality, like that's really what it is now.

On that note. I know it's It's almost an hour and a half since we jumped on the call. It's a Saturday night. I wanna be respectful of your time. But this has been a blast brain. Thank you so much for joining us at Kawaii AF underscore official on Instagram and of course, tiktok Go follow the band. Hopefully those live streams on Thursday nights will be back soon, probably in the new year, I assume, because it doesn't make sense to start during the holidays now. But thank you so much for being here.

What else do you want people to check out for the band or for you? Personally, I would like everyone to please join our discord. That's something I didn't, you know, talk about a lot on here, but I want to do it right now. Y'all Like I said, you always want to be on on to the next thing and discord right now is getting pretty, pretty big. It was a small thing that was just for, you know, like it was the other Skype, but for gamers. But now it's turning into a big, big, big platform and like we want to be a part of that because this chord is great, with really creative events for a community.

It's a great community builder. It's a great hub to hang out with whoever. It's really, really fun. There's nothing big happening right now with it because we're still learning it. But you know how to hop on it. Well, it's, you know, fresh be on the ride with us. That's fun, too. But yeah, so our discord is quite diverse. It is on our link three on Instagram. That's the quickest way to get to it. So but yeah, like discord, check us out on their quite diverse coming out.

It's fun. Send gifts. Yes. Oh dang, I forgot. What? It's not the peanut butter. It's not to be. That's right. That's right. But yeah, you know, But yeah, discord. Kawaiiverse. That's where we're trying to really like do do some cool stuff. Get in on some dope giveaways. Get it on. You know, some, like, you know, like first looks and all that stuff. That's where we're trying to make a discord. Also, we're trying to do, like, watch parties and whatnot. You know, we were trying to, you know, have fun with our fans.

It's also a good place to meet other Kawaii fans. So, yeah, discord, Kawaiiverse. And, you know, obviously check us out on the Spotify. I think that's about it. Stay tuned for the new album. Oh, yeah. Whenever that's, you know, going you'll know, Really Watch our stories. Our storage is where have fire information goes to. I love your stories, but yeah, on all our platforms, which I'm sure it's gonna be, you know, like in the Linky links, but yeah, check us out, man. All right. Sick? Well, yeah, me being the new of discord.

Even though I've been on it for, like, four years since I used to do a lot of gaming, I still went to look it up. It's like, Oh, yeah, I need to get the link to join. I can't just search it. So it's in the link tree like you said we'll put the link tree as well as the actual discord link in our show. Notes at Bandhive dot rocks slash 109 so everybody can go. Like I said earlier, just click all the links. Follow all the people that Brandon has mentioned as well as of course, the band themselves.

Go check that all out. And again. This has been amazing. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time out of your Saturday evening to join us here on the show and dance. I really hope you listen and go make a tiktok like I'm no tiktok expert. I'm a new but tiktok. But at least for the foreseeable future, this is the next big platform, and you've got to get on that and ride that wave. Yeah. Yo, man, Jane, this is so much fun. I can talk forever.

I'm down. Let's do this again. We might have to talk about discord. Oh, yeah, maybe cool. We'll talk about that later. But, Brandon, thank you so much, man. Alright, He's still y'all. Mhm, Mhm. That does it for this episode of the Bandhive podcast. Thank you so much for listening and thank you, Brandon, for coming on the show. It was great to have you here with all that super high energy. What a fun time. So thank you again for coming on the show and everyone who's listening.

I hope you listen to Brandon's advice and start a tiktok it's so worth it to do. And in the big picture, it's actually really easy compared to the other things that you probably should be doing for your band. So having a good social media presence is absolutely key, and tiktok is the way of the future. So go do that and let us know how it goes for you. We'll be back with another brand new episode next Tuesday at six a.m. Eastern time. Until then, I hope you have a great New Year's stay safe.

And, of course, as always, key for rockin