Welcome to Peach Jam, recorded live in our studios in Midtown Atlanta, featuring songs and stories from a sampling of the truly diverse and incredibly talented musicians who call the Peach State Home.

And the more than.

On this episode, we'll find out why a rapper from Covington proclaimed himself president of the Universe.

The game is a really hit and miss.

How a radio contest gave an artist from Kennesaw a kick start.

You're trying to make me cry.

And we'll meet a band from Atlanta who found a lot of success in Europe.

Yeah.

First up, a band that features two brothers who've been making music together since childhood.

Hailing from Atlanta, it's Ringo Starr on Peach Jam.

That's your small message.

And it will be okay.

But every single time I look your way, I just stand and turn away.

And I sing your song, Santigold.

And maybe it's in my head.

Maybe it's something I said.

But every single time I look your way and you just stand and turn away and do everything that I need to.

Hi.

My name is Mario, and I play drums for Ringo Starr.

Hi, I'm Josh.

I play guitar and bass and sing a little.

I am Nick.

I play guitar and sing and play bass.

Peter Alexander.

Virtual keyboards and guitar.

And middle name was Alex.

Date of Birth.

Five 2379.

So show security.

But who are you and what do you play?

Oh, we're a gringo star.

We play rock and roll music.

Can you be more specific about your music and your sound and what it is?

Somebody who's never heard Gringo Star.

What do you play?

It incorporates a lot of various elements from most American classic music from the fifties to the sixties to the seventies.

Nothing from the eighties, all classic elements from country and western surf, doo wop, the British Invasion.

I mean, it really covers the spectrum of, you know, that type of early rock and anything that you a. I always.

So I guess that's try you leaving in L.A. you know we go overseas we go to Europe a lot and play and I think that that has a big.

They think we're Americana.

Yeah.

Do they think we're the genuine article?

I don't know.

Really?

Because y'all are from Atlanta, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then but when you go to Europe, they think that you're something special.

No.

Okay.

Just.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, you know, maybe more so than when you go to, like, Macon.

There's so many shows in the U.S. all the time.

Like in every city.

There's so many shows going on.

And I don't know for sure, but it seems like there might just be less happening in some of the places Europe we go.

So when you do have a show like it's more like it feels like more of an event, kind of it people come out like, I don't know, here it's just like there's just shows every night at, like multiple venues, you know?

Yeah.

Was you guys like, I think Ringo Starr still willing to enjoy hand-to-hand combat?

Yeah, I feel getting in the van.

Just go in and go in and go in and playing.

Playing, playing.

I think since I've been in the band, the majority of shows that we've played have been outside of the area of Atlanta, and I think that separates this band with a lot of other local bands is that it's the home base and it's our home.

But the band's always tried to play outside of this area and always in the van going, going, going.

So, you know, it just it does take a lot to do that.

It's a lot of commitment to do it and that that might be the difference.

Like with a lot of other bands, because you can't really do very much if you're not willing to expand beyond your local scene.

But it's important to get that down first.

I think we've always tried to take advantage of any opportunity that came up, you know?

Our first show we ever played out of town was it was before cellphones were so common.

I remember we had like a phone in our hallway that rang.

It was like this guy called from Texas and he was like, Can you guys come play?

We'll give you $300.

We're like, Okay, it's just El Paso, you know, it's like 16 hours from Dallas.

Yeah, Might have been a dollar gas that the gas is cheaper when you go to Dallas.

We're yeah.

To ask this now.

Well he had released a like a live album at the end of 2019 and we were going to do like about a five week tour of Europe and it was May and June less, 2020.

And then a few weeks before, I guess about a month or two before lockdown, everything happened and got shut down, you know, and, you know, took us about a year and a half to get to the airlines to refund our tickets and stuff.

That was that was the funnest part about that.

Like, we practice in the basement of my house where we record, too.

And we had had a band practice like before, like this all happened.

And I remember I just didn't go in there much.

And then it was like a time capsule because like I never cleaned the practice space.

So and I just felt weird about it all.

And I walk in there like our beer cans and shit for the last practice and everything and had this smell like nothing changed.

And it just it was depressing.

Yeah.

Is is it difficult to tour with your brother or is it a good.

Oh, yeah.

Are you asking?

Yeah, either way.

I mean.

Yeah.

Know, we usually get home from tour.

We're like, All right, talk to you.

And like, yeah, that's good.

I mean, we've been playing music together since we were he, you know, elementary school or whatever.

And, you know, and she told me once before, I don't remember, but I'm sure, oh, one thing I can.

Coming up, we'll talk to Chad later, a rapper from Covington who admittedly knows a lot of Shania Twain lyrics.

So are you telling me that you could sing, Man, I feel like a woman.

Not that I. I can't.

I can't.

But first, an artist who performed on stage at the Music Midtown Festival in Atlanta at the tender age of 16 and I'd be, like, watching the fork in the road on TV.

Be sure to check out our podcast.

We take a little more of a deep dive into all the farmers, chefs and artisans that are involved in bringing all these great Georgian products into your home.

It's a can't miss and and senior year long hair behind her ears.

She's always said she didn't know the boys.

How lucky to beat us in the Stones.

Hail, hail, rock and roll.

She's a rebel.

Her dad said she'd go to hell and he shared a boot of wreckage and never seen a more beautiful girl.

And then.

And Becky Lynch in 1975.

Hi, my name is Loren Morrow.

I am from Kennesaw, Georgia, and I play music and I guess that sounds like kind of Americana indie rock.

So the first song, Vicky Lynn, is about your mom.

Tell me about your mom.

Oh, my mom is a very complex person.

That would probably be hard to sum up and the amount of time that we have.

But what I generally say when I introduce the song is that my mom and I are very close and we've always been really close with each other.

Um, there was a time periods in our lives where we weren't as close and generally when I was a teenager, etc., you know, and I always thought that I always knew she was cool, that I would never allow myself to admit it.

And she would tell me these stories about when she was like 16 and she would be sneaking out of our house and she'd go hang out like Leonard Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers and and Willie and all these, like, other bands.

And and she'd be like, you know, more.

And I was, I was cool once and blah, blah, blah or whatever.

I'd be like, Oh, whatever.

And in comparison, though, when I was 16, I was like, lined up outside of a Barnes and Noble dress like Harry Potter, like waiting for a new Harry Potter book to come out.

So I always talk about how, like, she's way cooler than me, She has better story.

You know, she's just she's lived a lot of life and she's awesome.

Let's go back.

You said that you would be waiting outside for the new Harry Potter book.

What house are you in?

Well, I would always say these quizzes that I always get Gryffindor, but I have been told by multiple people that I'm a slither and and I don't know what kind of vibe I give off to Slither in, but I'm not bad at it.

I mean, so there are good people too.

I was always a weird kid who preferred to play along, so I love to spend summer.

My grandparents circuit home just across the state line out on 20 west to a town of 303 50.

Best we get there on Friday and stays.

You even have to dust off all the furniture and shake out all sheets.

The front door slam to hold the tin roof, always sleet.

It might have been a dump.

Too many.

It was paradise and my grandma was making dumplings, singing, walkin the food still like we're in a time zone.

It was 1994.

You're from Kennesaw and you talk about going across the Alabama line.

Where exactly where you go.

I'm assuming that's biographical.

Yes.

So where exactly were you going?

What was the city?

So my grandparents lived in Marietta, Georgia, but they were from Cullman and in Edwardsville, Alabama, which is just past the state line.

And we would go to this house that my grandmother was raised in this town called Edwards ville, Alabama.

And it was just like going back into time in a lot of ways and just really sweet, like memories of what it felt like to be from the South to me, you know, and just the way that everything felt different there, you know, And we didn't have like a TV.

We just listened to the radio and, you know, it was just it was such a special time for me in my, like, imagination as a kid.

And you mentioned in the song, basically, don't make fun of those people.

Those are my family, because what did you grow up hearing about your family being from Alabama?

I think it's it's not even just like Alabama or Jordan.

You know, it's it's everywhere.

I feel like sometimes, you know, there's a stereotype of every, you know, different culture, you know, I guess throughout the United States.

But, I mean, you know, Alabama, it was always you know, people were the saying that we were just like racist rednecks or something, you know.

And I think people could assume that about me being from Kennesaw, too, or whatever.

And, you know, and I was just there's there's so much more and there is so much more depth and beauty to the south.

And then the the scars of the past that we have.

You know there's place my heart for Alabama at a loss No one but me and you my a joke.

That's my family down the road.

You can't see what I can see somewhere in my favorite memory somewhere And my favorite memory somewhere in my favorite memory.

How long have you been doing music?

I started like, writing when I was 16, but then I wouldn't let anyone hear my songs or anything.

I wouldn't play in front of people.

And then I won this contest through 99 acts and I sang at Music Midtown with Butch Walker and his album Marvelous Three, and that's kind of like set my ambition into overdrive to want to play music forever.

But then really, it just started my first band when I was, you know, I was 20.

And then, I mean, really since then, just kind of, you know, going forward, if you could talk to 15 year old Lauren, what would you tell her?

Um, Oh, God, I would probably say, like, stop being so hard on yourself.

I would probably say to just trust your trust yourself and trust your talent and and trust other, you know, trust that you are enough the way that you are.

There are many years that I wish I could have gotten back for.

Um, either trying to be someone that I wasn't or.

Or just not thinking that I was good enough.

And I think that sometimes if you if when you realize that there is only one space for you and you walk in it, then I think that's a good thing.

Start happening.

So you're trying to make me cry?

No.

So when I see you around, everybody in town, fireworks in my brain and I feel sick.

It just means that I'm not over you.

Yeah, it just means it.

I'm not over you.

Yeah.

Okay.

And now the self-proclaimed president of the universe.

Chad.

Sir, I can't go on a spaceship.

Also popping a basic.

Told you all I will make it.

Let me get in my face.

Had no food on my plate.

All I know is a cold.

I just cuts in my face.

Everything is a no.

We can see if it crawls me while I sleep on the floor.

As I say, I'll go to pay the like such an exchange.

A different energy.

Take care, remember?

But I got a vivid memory.

I stand tall stand on this silly plateau me right on my legacy Your better me for better me working hard to learn The evidence is hard to do, but yet it can happen.

That is sudden.

I will never put off the gas.

I keep putting it again.

I'm sure I let my foot off the flames.

Chester.

And I'm a hip hop artist.

Yeah.

So I feel like just I would just say artist because I like all genres, but right now, you know, mainly hip hop.

So tell me about your background.

So I'm Jamaican, my parents are Jamaican.

I would have been born in Canada, but, you know, Canada, New York is right there.

So I was actually born in New York and ten going on 11.

I moved to Georgia, Covington, Georgia, to be exact, and I went to Middle school, high school out there.

And it's it's definitely a melting pot when it comes to me because, you know, being Jamaican and I have that culture, the New York culture there for sure.

And being from Georgia definitely is just all a mixture and it's it's been a it's been a rollercoaster of different vibes.

Kind of crazy here but it's the dope is you know, I love everything.

I wouldn't change anything about myself at all on that march.

I'll see to that.

But it's back.

So we sort of the bar scene we went in, I guess I chose the mission.

I was at the top of the block, right?

The Bowery destined for greatness.

It's a blessing, the passion of coming straight from the basement I can do on a spaceship.

I so far from that basic, told you all I would make it.

Let me down my face and food on my plate.

All I know is a go as just gets in my face.

Everything is a no.

We can see if it goes.

Meanwhile, I sleep on the floor as I I'll come to paint.

So such a strange thing.

Energy.

So that's that's sessions strange.

A different energy.

And it's not such a strange a different energy.

Such a strange different energy.

Such a strange, different energy.

Well, my mother is an artist.

She actually recently just released her own song not too long ago, last December 2022.

So she's been an artist all her life and growing up in a household with her, it's always music.

Playing Sunday, we had this every Sunday.

It would be like a thing where she's cleaning and in the morning the music is playing loud.

She would play Shania Twain, she would play Cher, she would play all the odds of of reggae artists, you know, sort of.

You're telling me that that you could sing, Man, I feel like a woman.

Not this.

I. I can't.

I can't.

Yeah.

Because I knew the whole album.

Okay, so, yeah, I can't.

Actually, I definitely she would blast all types of stuff.

So I've definitely taking in everything.

That's how I just feel.

Like don't try to.

I know like I do rap, but don't try to just put me keep me at that box because sooner or later I'll do something else, especially as I'm learning right now.

You know what I mean?

Learning different instruments that I want to.

So yeah, So if you look up Tedster online, there's somebody has written that you make the quote, music of the future.

What I say to that is, you know, I label myself the president of the universe.

I care about everybody.

I want to change a couple of things in the world.

I hope to heal and help to my music and, you know, and that's why I don't want to just stay in one genre.

I definitely want to work on myself to give more vibes than just just rest Scarlett all the time.

And, you know, I know about the truth.

I think to myself, she's fighting.

She says nothing.

I'm just fighting.

She says nothing.

I don't know what is going.

I'm drunk.

I know I can be just killed over working my way.

But you can't.

I'm not trying to cross.

You lose control at the foot of back and kick the door.

I don't got the time to pick a phone.

I don't know.

I do not know.

Messages or messages and texting back.

I like you.

Love me.

How you play like I'm not going back in October.

The next bus around was smart.

You could say.

Must have like had least just want to start to think about this won't be because it's called places It's so big and told my face came much.

When I think about Covington Georgia, I don't necessarily think about hip hop.

Is it wrong or is there is there a scene that I don't know about?

There's definitely a scene for Covington, Georgia.

We actually call it the Far Side.

Okay.

Yeah, we call it the Far Side.

And I think there should be a definite microscope on on on Covington, Georgia, because there's a super, super, super talented people out there that needs a light shined on them for sure.

When you said that you are now the president of the universe, what is it that you're going to implement?

What are what's what's going to be your presidential statements and motives and decrees as president of the universe?

Well, right now, with how the world is changing, I think we're in a real historic time.

And there's a lot of technology that's changing our lives, changing the way we think.

And I feel like we've been disconnected with our thoughts in minds and how we travel through reality right now.

So I do want to bring people back down to earth because I think we went too far away from who we are and what we truly believe in.

And I don't think people really know what they want anymore or invested in certain real basic things.

I think everyone is just like out of the circuit right now, the cycle.

And I just aim with with the music through the music.

I could do a little healing, you know what I mean?

Back to Love has been like over the years.

You just see a lot of tragedy happening and I don't think no one's really talking about it, you know?

I mean, it's a battle itself with a lot of people spiritually as well.

So I aim to, you know, put the love through the cosmos.

Right.

I've been there.

My vow, you know, me, every time I go pick up the phone, call me.

I can answer love.

Money is the one and only I can't miss, you know, topic found a paradise on my own and the that was risky for me.

No touching is on my back.

So she want to be in.

Do you think she want to be pop stars, Tony?

But you know she's getting.

I don't know.

I think I ain't talking no call in my Can't waste time.

Don't cut the ties.

Now, this piece of money.

Oh, so me what you like?

What you into?

I don't feel so lucky.

It's all before you try and walk away.

Just remember the choice you made a walk on in.

Hey, baby.

Before you try and walk away, remember the choice you made to walk away says Thanks for watching Peach Jam.

Please go out and support live local music and independent record stores in your area.