Brad Skistimas, a 20-year veteran independent musician under Five Times August, pivots to acoustic protest songs critiquing modern media bias—like his hit This Just In, targeting Justin Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act during the 2022 Ottawa Truckers Convoy, which he calls a peaceful uprising misrepresented as violent. His videos, including Jesus What Happened to Us and Sad Little Man (about Anthony Fauci), face YouTube demonetization and age restrictions, forcing him to use platforms like Rumble. Frustrated by cancel culture’s lack of redemption, Skistimas urges freedom-minded creators to bypass digital censorship by supporting tangible media—books, vinyl—and defiantly engaging mainstream platforms, proving dissent can thrive even when suppressed. [Automatically generated summary]
The Truckers Convoy, Cancel Culture and the Culture War.
Joining me tonight is Brad Scatismus from Five Times August.
I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Gunn Show.
You know, I think one of the most telling things to come out of the truckers' convoy to Ottawa, that protest that lasted nearly four weeks, wherein truckers from all across the country and their supporters converged on the nation's capital to protest the remaining coronavirus lockdown restrictions in this country.
Anyway, I think the most telling thing to come out of that whole thing was how the rest of the world and the rest of the media in the world looked at what the truckers were doing in Canada versus how the bought and paid for Canadian mainstream media treated these peaceful people.
You see, if you got all your news from the Canadian media, these protesters were terrorists, violent, potential arsonists, worthy of Justin Trudeau invoking the never-before-used Emergencies Act to seize their property, their businesses, their trucks, and their money, and ultimately arrest and hold them for weeks.
But people who are lucky enough to live outside of the dome of the bought and paid for mainstream media that has descended on this country, well, they had a very different take.
Commenters from the UK, Australia, Europe, the United States, they saw the Truckers Convoy for what it was.
A peaceful uprising of people who did something for themselves when all the systems they thought they could rely on to protect them had failed during the pandemic.
And all those outside commenters, well, they saw something else too.
They saw Justin Trudeau for what he is.
A soft-handed, authoritarian thug who doesn't care about human rights at all.
Someone who exists in an ideological realm somewhere closer to Chairman Mao than the Magna Carta.
All this is to say that I'm excited to have on my show tonight, Brad Scatismis.
He's an independent musician who has a brand new single out.
It's called This Just In.
And I think it is an incredible depiction of Justin Trudeau's cowardice and fragility.
So joining me now is Brad Scatismis in an interview we recorded yesterday morning.
Truckers Convoy Revelation00:06:45
Take a listen.
So joining me now from Dallas is Brad Schistamis.
You might know him as Five Times August.
And I wanted to have Brad on the show, even though he's been on the show before or on the network before with Andrew Chapados.
I wanted to have Brad on the show because Brad has a brand new single out about the convoy.
But before we get to that, in case people are Sheila fans and not specifically Andrew fans, and so you might be a new face to some of the people watching the show, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Yeah, my name is Brad Schistamis.
I started Five Times August when I was 18.
So I've been writing, recording, releasing music for over 20 years now.
And just this last year, I started releasing a series of sort of acoustic protest songs, kind of harkening back to the 60s, but in a new way with a new perspective.
And it sort of changed the trajectory of my career.
And it's been interesting, to say the least.
Yeah, your music has a bit of a, I don't know, I'm not a music expert.
I sort of exist in 1970s and early 80s country, but it has sort of a blowing in the wind kind of vibe, a little bit that sort of protest, that protest vibe.
What was it that prompted you to sort of make the switch?
What was it?
One thing that you saw in the world that caused that for you.
Um, it was kind of just the world in general and and at the end of uh, at the end of 2020, is sort of looking around wondering, you know, is in?
No, is nobody is?
Are no, none of my peers in the music industry going to speak up?
And do?
I want to look back on this time thinking, you know wondering, did I say anything?
Did I do anything?
Did I?
And I didn't want my kids to to be left behind in in the world that was sort of showing itself, and so I felt like I had to do something.
Um, and music is my tool so um, I I kind of chose to jump off the platform and piss off a bunch of fans and uh, lose some and then gain a whole bunch, a whole new crowd of people that I love and appreciate and who get me and I get them, and it's been a wild ride, but it's certainly been worth it.
Yeah i've, i've spoken to a few artists and and people along those lines who have said that, you know, I I felt like I had to do something and I had.
If being authentic means that I lost some friends and some fans, but I was right by myself and right by God then that was the only thing that I could do.
Yeah, and these songs have really been sort of a spiritual partnership too i've i've come to find, because the first one I released was called God, help us all, and it was sort of a prayer in a sense of like, look what we've become and you know, what else do we have left, but to ask god to help us out at this point now um, tell me about your new um single, because it's called this, this just in, and it's convoy inspired,
which I think is fantastic.
Tell us about it and what inspired you to make that um.
So this just in is it's sort of a play on words.
It's um taking aim at Justin Trudeau and I was following the the Ottawa convoy stuff online, um, as it was happening live and I was just I I loved every second of it because this was the way to peacefully protest and I felt like, um it was, it was changing conversation and I was fascinated by the idea that like, this whole thing was live streamed by everybody who was there.
Um, you could see what was happening as it was happening and you're seeing the bounce houses and these unifying moments of singing and song and um.
At the same time the media still had the gall to turn it on its head and make it out to be this evil thing.
And then the leader of the country bails on these people and doesn't even talk to them and and and runs away and says i've got covet or something, and runs away um, and I just found that fascinating.
I was really just inspired by um, the convoy in general and um.
I had other projects I had been working on at the time, at the beginning of the of, of it all um to show some support, and by the time the police got involved it It sort of changed the tone.
And I had to sort of set those aside.
And I came back around and wrote this one, which takes aim at Justin Trudeau, but at the same time, is also a message of support for the Canadian freedom fighters and just to say, you know, keep going and keep standing up for what you believe in.
Yeah, I sort of got the sense that the title of the song was also a play on just how bad the media was.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
And that too, that's what I liked so much about the title was like, we're so media driven right now that, you know, this just in is kind of, you know, it's a common phrase to hear, but it paired so nicely with Trudeau that I couldn't pass it up.
Yeah, it was really interesting and fascinating to see how the media lied about the convoy just so shamelessly.
Even though they knew more people were watching the live streams or the work of our journalists here at Rebel News live on the ground, they knew more people were consuming that bit of news more than people were turning to the mainstream media for the truth about the convoy.
Yet did they still continue to lie?
They still continued to say that it was this violent, misogynistic, white supremacist uprising.
When you're looking around and you're saying, bouncy castles, there's shiny hockey.
There's, you know, it's far more diverse than the mainstream media if you're checking demographic boxes and who does that, but the mainstream media sure does.
I mean, the crowd was diverse.
It was peaceful.
And yet the media were sort of behind this push to crack heads.
And the government was more than happy to oblige.
Yeah, it's amazing.
I mean, the most beautiful clip I saw from the whole thing was it was literally people holding hands in a circle from all walks of life singing, we are the world.
Mainstream Media Myths00:03:44
And I'm like, how, when do you ever see this in life?
And they still made it a bad situation.
And in January, I got the same experience.
I was in Washington, D.C. for Defeat the Mandates, which was a huge rally.
35,000 people were there.
We were on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
It was a beautiful day.
We marched peacefully.
We didn't have any run-ins with police or anything.
It was one of the most unifying experiences of my life.
But then you read what the media reports about it and you're going, I was there.
Like you can see what happened.
And it's just astonishing that they have this control and the gall to still push a narrative no matter how blatantly wrong they are.
You can see the truth for your own eyes.
And it's frightening that people still even believed it afterwards.
They have the truth right there in front of them.
We all have the truth in front of us, but people will still choose to sort of turn a blind eye.
They don't want to admit that they're wrong.
Yeah, it's really something to see the media then complain about mean tweets and how people don't respect them and how maybe they might get called fake news out in the public.
And they can't, they don't get it.
They don't get why the normals are saying, yeah, you are liars, because I can fact check you in real time with my phone on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram Live.
You can literally fact check the mainstream media and they are lying to the public.
And when the public tells them they're liars, they get offended about it.
It's really fascinating to watch.
Yeah, there's a complete disconnect.
It's kind of this idea, like we're living in the information age.
Right.
Literally in the information age.
Everybody can do the job of a journalist if they really want to.
They can get out in the street.
They can document what's happening.
They can put it online.
And, you know, y'all are doing the real journalists' work.
You're doing, you're out there.
You're showing what's true.
Then there's this other side of the journalist.
I don't mean to say that anybody can be a journalist, but you know what I mean.
Sure, yeah.
It's a thing you do.
It's not a guild you join.
Right.
And so it's not that you can't walk into it and go like, well, I have the job.
So I get to say what's true and what's not.
Yeah, it's a weird day and age that we're living in.
And it seems as though the people are early adopters of good ideas and are embracing the new media and the new way of disseminating information.
And the journalists of old, they are hanging on with an icy grip to the stranglehold they think they have on the information that the people need to consume.
Yeah.
And it's kind of like I compare it to like an old sitcom or something from the 80s or 90s where like, if you used to watch Save by the Bell and Zach Morris would tell a lie at the beginning of the episode and then he had to keep doubling down on that lie until it crumbled on top of him.
That's what they're in right now.
It's like they've crafted, they craft a narrative and then they have to keep doubling down, triple down on it and keep it going because they can't go back on the lie until it just crumbles.
And then they just pretend like they never even said it at all, which is the most even more fascinating than anything.
Yeah, we're seeing that right now with, oh, with the vaccines.
So they said, oh, you know, just get a vaccine and it's going to stop the spread.
That's it.
It'll stop the spread.
You won't get the, you won't get coronavirus if you get the vaccine.
And now they're saying, oh, we totally never said that.
Debating Vaccines00:15:40
It just means that you won't get it as bad.
Oh, yeah.
That's the conversation I have all the time.
Supposedly, I've supposed to have died like 20 times by now based on the conversations I've had.
And then when I say, well, you know, I actually had somebody will say to me online, you know, good luck on that ventilator.
And I'll say, well, I actually had COVID and it was two days of a headache and sweats.
And then I moved on with my life.
And then they backtrack and they'll say, well, nobody said that you were good.
You know, they do the same thing.
Like, oh, it wasn't going to be that bad for most people.
And it's like, well, choose your lane and stick in it.
Stay in it.
That's what I've been saying.
Well, you know, it's fun.
It's funny when all of a sudden these people get in an argument and they come around to your way of thinking just, you know, two years later.
You're like, you just called me a liar 10 minutes ago, but whatever.
Now, I wanted to ask you, because you are a musician and pop culture is very woke.
And now it sort of seems like the prevailing counterculture.
I was talking to somebody at a protest about this over the weekend.
You know, the renegades and rebels of music, they used to be, you know, literally renegades and rebels.
And now the renegades and rebels of pop culture, they're the traditionalists.
They're like, yeah, I don't cheat on my wife.
I have three kids.
I go to church.
What's it like for you to exist in that space?
It's bizarre because I always sat on the outskirts of the sex, drugs, and rock and roll lifestyle.
I saw it from afar and I thought, well, that'll never be me.
I'm just, you know, I'm just too clean of a guy.
That's not my lifestyle.
I'm married.
I'm a dad who cares about his family.
And that's why I'm speaking up now.
And simultaneously, I'm being called dangerous and a misinformation spreader.
And like to be called dangerous at this point is a joke because, you know, what I've never done anything dangerous in my life.
And it's fascinating because the people going through this, particularly in entertainment and stuff, you have these relationships with people that you've developed over the years.
That I had friendships that spanned all kinds of different ways of thinking that, you know, you accepted everybody for who they were.
And I sort of stayed in my middle lane and appreciated everybody.
The moment I started speaking out about what was important to me, a whole left side of my relationships, friendships, associates had just dropped off.
I wasn't, you know, I wasn't part of that group anymore.
And these are people that are supposed to know who you are and know what your actual values are.
So by the time you, you know, I was saying these things through my songs, I had expected a little bit more conversation and back and forth.
And well, why do you feel that way?
But instead, it was just a door slammed shut.
And like, I can't believe you've become one of those loonies.
And these are, this is coming from the side that's supposed to be empathetic and understanding.
So it, yeah, and that tolerance is, you know, pretty extreme to shut somebody out like that.
Yeah, it's very, again, it's so strange to see this side that preaches tolerance, not even realizing that actually it's you.
You've been tolerant the whole time because you sort of sat in the middle, heard everybody from this side, heard everybody from that side, made up your mind, didn't write anybody off.
But the second that you stepped in one direction or another, you're just cut right off.
Everything they knew you to be, none of it mattered because your politics didn't align with theirs.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, I had fans that were like, I'm going to delete your music now.
I'm like, you don't even want to ask me, like, you know what my last 20 years of music has been.
You know what my message is.
You don't even want to talk about it.
Like the door is open.
I didn't ask you to stop listening to my music.
You're choosing to do that.
And if you're going to do it with my music, do it with every music you listen to then from now on.
See how that works out for you with every movie you watch, make sure their values align with every little thing.
You know, like, why just me?
Because I'm more outspoken about it.
But if I was saying the irony is if I was saying what they agreed with, I'd be getting the complete opposite message.
Thanks for speaking up.
You're doing the right thing.
I'm going to listen to you more now.
You know?
Yeah.
So that's crazy.
No, it is weird.
And, you know, you see these people in the first one to race off to a Mark Wahlberg movie.
And you don't want to remind them that he's like a, he's a pro-life Catholic, but, you know, but they are, he's not as outspoken about it as you.
You know, he doesn't hide it, but he's not as outspoken as you.
And yeah, they don't apply that litmus test to the rest of their life.
And as conservatives, or at least people from the right side of the political spectrum, we can't do that because there would be so few things in pop culture that we could really consume if we had a purity test for every little bit of music we listened to or every movie that we watched or TV show.
There would be nothing for us.
There would just, you know, you and Travis Tritt and a couple other people that are outspoken about this stuff.
Yeah.
And a lot of my heroes, I mean, if I had, if I, if all the music I listened to was based on the morality of those people, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be listening to any of them.
I, you know, but you, you, I appreciated the music.
It wasn't about their lifestyle.
It wasn't about their choices and what they were doing.
And, you know, there is a line at some point where you're like, well, they're just, you know, there's a, they're a scumbag.
I'm not going to support their work.
But everybody has challenges, you know, there, and a lot of people in the industry have faced addiction and different things like that.
But, you know, we're still humans at the end of the day.
Right.
And you don't have to cut somebody off just because they're not exactly who you are.
That's supposed to be the beautiful thing of life in general is that we're all different, but you don't end a relationship or try to shove somebody out because they are different from you.
That's one of the lines in a recent song that I wrote called Anti-Fascist Blues, which was segregate.
I mentioned segregate diversity.
That's the whole thing.
That's their whole thing is they're celebrating and chopping everybody into these little tiny blocks in the name of diversity, but at the same time, it's separating every single one of us into a little classified labeled group.
And then they pick it apart in a way that gets us to fight and argue with each other.
And so it's celebrate who you are in diversity, but also argue with everybody about that.
Yeah, I guess the root word of diversity might be division at the end of the day.
And I think so much of this cancel culture, it's so anti-humanity in that it does not allow for forgiveness.
It doesn't allow for redemption.
It doesn't allow for growth.
And it doesn't allow for the understanding that as humans, we're bad at being human.
Like we're not good at this.
Like we're not good at being kind to each other and getting through life.
It's you're constantly learning and struggling and suffering.
But with cancel culture, there's no allotment for what it means to be a human built into the system.
You just are pure and aligned with this side.
And the second you diverge, you're just in the trash can.
Yeah, it's a very black and white way of thinking.
And there's no middle ground.
I think that's where a lot of the sane people in this movement right now fall into that middle ground where they understand these things that there should be conversation and dialogue and that we are all different.
And the idea that we need to push everybody into one container of thinking is a very dangerous way of moving.
And they also don't even realize like when we're all making these comparisons of past historical events and like that's where we're going.
That's where we're going when you're trying to say everybody over here needs to be look like this, act like this, talk like this, can only say these things.
That's very dangerous, but they don't even acknowledge that it's wrong.
It's just right.
That's the way it has to be.
Yeah, all in the name of diversity.
We all have to think the same, look the same, talk the same, use the same pronouns, all in the name of diversity.
Now, speaking of cancel culture, apparently comedy is not allowed on Twitter.
Babylon Bee has been kicked off Twitter.
How long for you?
And how are you still on YouTube, by the way?
I don't know how I'm still on YouTube.
Several of my videos have been attacked over the last year.
Wikipedia deleted my Wikipedia page after.
Oh, at least they deleted it.
Usually they just let it get polluted with lies.
Right.
Yeah.
Well, what happened was I had a fan notify me and said, hey, it looks like Wikipedia has marked your page for deletion.
So I went over and I personally, I was like, nobody cares about this page.
I'll update it with all of the most relevant stuff.
And they immediately took it down or took down all the new information that I had posted.
Apparently, I'm not allowed to post what's true about me.
Only the people on the back end are.
And so they ended up deleting the page.
Like, I'm taking up valuable real estate on Wikipedia of all things, some singer-songwriter, you know, like, yeah, it's crazy.
But YouTube has, they attacked my video, Sad Little Man, about Anthony Fauci for medical misinformation of all.
Right.
I was going to say, you're not allowed to question the advice of a public health officer on YouTube.
It's the bane of my existence because we have to publish two versions of the same video, one for YouTube and one for Rumble because of that rule.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that happened with another video of mine.
The second video I released was called Jesus What Happened to Us.
And essentially the entire video is just raw footage from the last couple of years that you can get anywhere.
It's just compiled and in a way.
But they had that video was up for a little bit.
Then they decided to demonetize it.
Then a few months later, they decided to make it age restricted.
So you have to be 18 years or older to watch the original edit.
And it's not even, it's not even, it's not even a PG sort of experience.
You know, they've just chosen this.
So I did have to re-edit that and I re-edited 11 times until it got through to be monetized again.
But what was happening every time I would edit it, because they don't tell you what's wrong with the video, just say it's wrong.
And so I would take out a little clip here and replace it and take out a clip here and replace and see if it would get through.
And it would, it would just, I'd upload it, click submit, and it would already be age restricted and demonetized.
Like it, like it went through the algorithm perfectly on their end.
And so I had to figure out a way to do that.
But, you know, these are the games that they play right now.
And it's, it's part of the part of just the whole experience right now.
And I'm, I'm happy to play their game because I think being on those platforms and being loud and obnoxious, you know, it's, it's what they don't want.
And I was almost going to, I was almost going to quit the big social platforms last year until a lot of my fans were like, don't be, don't go, be more places than be, you know, and don't go to the echo chambers.
I'm still on all the all the other platforms, but like you want to be loud and obnoxious because they're not going to care if I leave.
They'll care if I stay.
And I, and they're, at the end of the day, they're just social media platforms.
They're not kings.
So I will say what I want to say until they boot me out.
And that's what's happened with Babylon B.
And, you know, it's crazy because what they're doing is they're, it's, it's art, comedy, entertainment, music.
They're now interpreting art in a way and telling you what you can say as a joke, what you can say in a song, what you can say in a movie.
And people don't recognize that they've crossed a really important line that we should not never have crossed in our lifetime.
Yeah, it's with the stuff with YouTube, it's almost like self-censorship through onerous terms of service, where you're just like, you know what?
I cannot comply with these terms of service.
I don't even know what they are anymore.
So I'm just not even going to bother.
That I think is the end goal where they can say, well, I didn't kick you off.
You just quit uploading.
Yeah, because I don't know what's okay to upload anymore.
But I'm glad you talked about sort of the realm of social media and pop culture and a conservative or at least a freedom-minded individual's role in all of that.
Because I do hear that criticism sometimes.
Why are you still on Twitter?
Twitter censors conservatives.
And I respond exactly the same way you do because they don't want me there.
And that's how you get more of me.
I'm like the Kool-Aid man.
You don't want me there?
I'm going to kick down the door and show up and make a lot of noise.
But I see that Daily Wire has taken a bit of a different approach.
I think it's a hybrid approach where they still are on all the other platforms, but they are creating this secondary sort of parallel ecosystem for conservatives.
And it's not just a media platform.
It's not just movies.
They're, you know, going into merchandise.
I think they're starting their own razor line because the one that advertised with them was a little too woke.
I think it was Harry's.
What do you think about that?
Is that sort of the way going forward where we have to create our own places to be?
Or do we just sort of shove our way into the other places and say, you don't want me?
I'm here anyway.
I think it's a balance of both of those.
I think that's perfect.
You know, you say, fine, you know, if you're not going to work with me, I'll just keep charging through ahead my own way.
I think that what they did with their razor company is hilarious.
Like, okay, Harry's razors isn't going to work for us.
Well, here's Jerry's razor.
And it's a way of mocking the whole system that they're a part of.
And they can't stand that.
And every time they try to suppress you anyway, and I just posted this on Twitter like an hour ago was like, you almost want to be canceled at this point because it brings more attention to what it is you're trying to suppress.
And that's been my case every step of the way.
Every time they tried to keep my message from being heard, it got even more attention to the point to where I was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at this huge rally, you know, singing my music to 35,000 people in January for Defeat the Mandates.
Stair Stepping Forward00:05:12
Like that would have never have happened had I kept my mouth shut and just behaved.
And it never would have happened had every time I put out a video, somebody over on YouTube or Twitter tried to shadow ban a link or hide me from the search results.
It just keeps stair stepping forward.
I think what you're going to see is because entertainment, and I don't think it's been utilized as much as it should in this movement, but music and comedy and movies are such an excellent tool to change the conversation that you're going to see this uprising of arts and entertainment coming up, sort of mocking that other side while they make their point on those on those mainstream platforms.
And every time the platform tries to dock it, it's going to get more and more attention.
That's kind of what happened with Dr. Malone's interview on Joe Rogan.
You know, they tried to remove it and then everybody goes, well, what was that interview about?
What'd they say?
And I've had friends that have, that work in the medical field who they started this whole pandemic wiping down their groceries with Lysol, you know, and they have eventually come around.
They watched that interview and their whole perspective had changed on everything.
So that's what you're doing.
You sort of have to let the snake eat its own tail, I think.
Yeah, I just when my enemies are fighting, I just want to stand back and let them do their do their thing.
They don't need my help.
Yeah.
And it's, it's interesting.
It's funny because, you know, I've sort of a little bit, and I probably shouldn't have checked out of pop culture altogether.
Like I said, I sort of exist in 1970s to early 80s country because I can't stand the wokeness.
Like I don't want to know what my soft drink company or my mascara manufacturer thinks about my politics.
I don't care.
I don't, and I don't want it shoved down my throat.
But at the same time, you make an excellent point.
How do we change the culture and fight in the culture war if we're not actively engaged in the cultural battlefields of movies, of music, of TV?
So I guess I'm guilty of walking off the battlefield in some respect.
And I know that I shouldn't.
So I guess what, what are your words of advice to conservatives who say, you know what, it's just not worth it.
I don't feel like getting canceled today.
They're going to call my work.
What's your advice to those people to get them re-engaged in the culture war?
I think it's just a matter of being headstrong and prepared for battle.
I mean, I kind of walked into this thing not knowing what was going to happen.
I knew I was going to lose fans.
I didn't know my, I didn't really think my Wikipedia page would ever get deleted because of it, you know.
So stupid.
But yeah, and look at it from a humorous vantage point because it's all so ridiculous.
And I'm just as guilty of it too.
I really don't pay attention to what's happening on the other end of pop culture until it peeks its way through and you see Cardi B on the Grammys scissoring somebody on the Grammys and you're like, that's what's going on.
Like Loretta Lynn would never do that.
That's why I'm over there.
Loretta Lynn would never do that.
Yeah.
And I think that there's a trend that's happening where a lot of us that are burnt out on it are regressing back to the things that we grew up with in entertainment.
I don't really watch any movies that were made prior to like 2000 and 2000, 2000.
That's where I'm at.
Yeah.
And so I think that our generation specifically, I think we're going to start pulling back from what's current, what's modern, what's trendy and what's digital for that matter.
I think that we need to sort of pull back and get in and reconnect with what's physical by your media, you know, a book or a CD or a vinyl record.
Those things are tangible nation that can't be changed later when they decide that they want to change it.
Right.
They're Orwell safe.
Just because we have the cap.
Say that again.
I said they're, they're Orwell safe.
Like you can't 1984 a hard copy VHS.
You just can't.
Right.
Exactly.
And just because like, just because we have the ability to live in a digital world doesn't mean we have to live in a digital world.
I think we need to reconnect with what is physical.
And that goes with, you know, money and food and all that stuff.
We just have to be grounded in reality while the other people escape into the metaverse and just let them go.
Because a lot of the people that are angry about, you know, say what I'm saying, what you're saying, what you're doing, they're ultimately going to find themselves with a set of in a closet somewhere with a set of goggles doped out of their mind on dopamine, just focused on the metaverse and we'll be on our merry way.
Yeah.
Supporting Music and Freedom00:03:13
And so, you know, again, it's kind of like the snake eating its own tail.
It's like, okay, you go down that path, shame me, blame me, whatever you want, but I'm going to stay focused on reality and what's happening and work on a better future for my kids.
Yeah.
Yeah.
These people can have their blue hair and lay on the couch doped right up on their phone and I'll be tending the garden.
Exactly.
No, you've been very generous with your time and this has been a fun conversation, but I'm sure you're a busy guy.
I know I'm a busy girl.
Where can people find your work and importantly support the work that you do?
Because you're an independent artist and I currently, before the call started here, I was putting some merch in my basket on your website.
Thank you.
Especially the I will not be leaving quietly shirt.
I think that might be my favorite.
But tell people how they can support you.
Yeah, you can visit five timesaugust.com.
It's all spelled out, F-I-V-E, timesaugust.com for the videos and links to the music.
And merchandise shirts are a great way to support the music.
I'm ultimately going to compile all these singles into a physical album at some point.
And we'll have that for sale.
Until then, you can support the music through bandcamp.com, five timesaugust.bandcamp, if you want to avoid the mainstream outlets.
Although I will say, if you love Apple, or not love Apple Music, but if you like Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify, by all means, support the music there, because when we charge our way through these mainstream platforms, the latest single, This Just In, that I released on Friday, has topped the singer-songwriter charts on Amazon.
And it's not that I care about the chart position itself, but it speaks so much about the movement that this is what people want.
This is how you vote with your dollar, that this song that is taking aim at a world leader and supporting such an important movement that's being suppressed is on top with all these other mainstream artists that have a machine behind them.
That's the power that we have.
And so, you know, by all means, check it out on those platforms, Apple Music and Amazon.
Brad, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today.
And I hope to have you on again when your next hit single drops.
Well, thanks for having me today.
I appreciate it.
Isn't Brad just great?
And he's brave.
It's brave to take a stand in an industry that demands complete homogeneity.
And I cannot wait to see what Brad does next.
Maybe he might inspire me to become interested in music from this century.
Anyway, if you want to check out Brad's music, maybe buy a little merch, I'll make sure that I include the relevant links in the show notes tonight so that you can support an artist who actually supports freedom.
Let your dollars do the talking.
Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place, next week.