Maxing on Civic Media, we are local music with Grizzly Adams there and the song is called
hungover and he's playing at the annex tonight on Regis Street here in Madison and it's always
a pleasure to have the artist stop by before their show. That's pretty cool Jimmy.
Grizzly Adams is an international independent artist hailing from New Jersey with over 300
million streams and an array of awards including 2022 Amazon breakthrough artist and winner of an
international song competition. Grizzly Adams is performing tonight at the annex and the
Regis Street retreat and Scrizzly and local promoter Jake Olsen is bringing him here to Madison
but tonight he's here with Nick Lotto who is also opening for the show. They stop by the studio.
Let's hear all about it. Scrizzly, Nick, welcome to Maxing Radio.
Broker happy to be here. Thank you so much for having us. Thanks so much. It's pleasure.
So you know you're from Jersey right? Yes sir. So is it like the sopranos there?
Such a good question. The best starting radio question I've ever seen so you're already
off to an amazing star rocker. The on the surface answer is yes it's so accurate and the
first thing that comes to mind for me is like the sopranos is the best show of all time and the
most accurate is it's the most like one most popular shows of all time and when I watch it I'm like
do people all over the world think they're like characters and they're fictional because they're so
silly like no I mean nicks from New York also he's Italian like we know to millions of people like
that they're just like guys in Delhi that's just how they act. I mean it's the charisma is real.
So in everyday life is there like a rivalry between Jersey and New York? Yeah there's always
another tone. There's always another tone to it. There's always jabs or a daily thing I'd say.
What do you think Nick? Well I mean you know people are always saying a bridging tunnel crowd right?
Yeah the bridging tunnel made New York. But you have Staten Island come on.
We're friends. We're all friends of me. It's all you know. Oh that's awesome.
It's Grizzly Adams a Jersey original now international any artist but we want to know the backstory.
How did you start playing music? I mean tell us a little bit about yourself. For sure I mean
I think the short answer is like I'm not one of those people that chose music music kind of just
chose me since age of five I've been playing like tons of instruments by the age of 19 I kind of
decided to learn to Nick actually if the college age I decided I really wanted to be a producer
and I really wanted to just make records. Had a few breakthroughs where you know I saw stuff I
was producing hit hundreds of thousands of people and I was like okay maybe I can do this
and it wasn't really until my my 20s that I started kind of feeling the void of well I have
these records why don't I just be the voice for those records and I know I had for I kind of
just heard what I wanted and just made my skills mold into that if that makes sense.
What kind of support network as you're finding your sea legs with music figuring out who you are
and what you want to do who is your support network or who gave you the best inspiration to do
what you want to do. I mean the first thing that comes to mind is my friend Chris Webby he's an
independent rapper he's sold like I mean he has billions of streams he sells out shows all over
the world and I was friends with him when I was a teenager and I was a producer for him and that
was kind of the example of I could produce something and then that day hundreds of thousands of
people downloaded it so it's like okay like there is something to this and he's always been
the kind of trailblazer for that so shout out my longtime brother Chris Webby I think you kind of
show me what works and what doesn't work and from there I've been navigating that into you know
what works for me musically. Nick same question to you I mean you're from New York how did you
break through and start getting your sea legs on and where did you get your aspirations from.
Yeah I've been playing music since I was a young kid I think I started like playing
cello in second grade then I moved on to drums and then picked up a guitar in like fifth grade
but when I got to New York City it was a lot of just like hustling and meeting people and
going to clubs and shows and introducing myself and I got to audition for Scrisley Adams project
at the time and we had been playing like a lot of local shows around the area and we got this one
big opportunity to go on our first national tour and that kind of broke everything wide open
for me as a musician and introduced me to a whole new world with a whole bunch of new exciting
moments and got a lot of a lot of great education and experiences from that so. Now you played
cello and you said you've been playing since your five. I thought we started a string quartet.
That brings me in our next question is what role did your parents play in
starting with music? My parents were just like always. I think my mother was always just like had
this really like good vibe of like like the sky's the limit like anything's possible but she's
also like deeply rooted into like realism you know she's never delusional so it's like if you wanted
to do the tour and sell out the show you have to put in the thousands of hours of work and like
if you want people to buy the record like it has to sound good and like it's like nothing is
handed to you but you can do it if you want. Well that's the support right now I'm talking about
like when you first like did she make you pay take piano lessons like when you started in music
what role did your parents play? It's hard to explain I mean they were always no one forced me
to do anything I just always made music I don't know how to explain it so you to five like I just
always say I had a record collection. Oh for sure three copies of Moon Dance come on. Yeah of course.
Nick how about you what was your? I my parents were always cello so you know oh my god
I don't get a cello. I'm wrong man I haven't picked up a cello in here but my parents were always
supportive man and they I was highly encouraged to take lessons when I started playing guitar in 5th
grade but I'm not I'm not really good in the classroom so that didn't last very long and it
you know I kind of just self taught just listening to classic rock records and nice you know
playing shows so real quick you are you as Grizzly Adams to Decker yes I play league guitar
for him you play league guitar and but you're also a solo artist doing your own yes set tonight
correct yes very excited about that how did you two meet what's the back story with you guys we had
a mutual friend who was in my backing band for a while said we needed a league guitarist Nick showed
up to my apartment you played a G chord dude yeah he's good he didn't play anything I was like he's
good let him in this G chord yeah I love it I got it I think it's what it was on Friday I
started playing was like you know we're going somewhere yeah a G chord do you have a car you said
out there there was no audition you said on my bed played a G chord and that was it like he played
the G chord on your bed yeah that's that sounds suspect that's not anything oh man well we
mentioned you won in an international songwriting competition and former winners include Perry best
steel passenger vance joy and you have 300 million streams tell us about the competition
in your large social reach sure um yeah I mean the competition that's like the biggest songwriting
competition I guess on earth I think the year I entered advanced joy won it and he was just didn't
seem fair because that song he had was like eight times platinum like but shout out vance joy
it like eight times platinum song and it won my song had like no streams and I entered it and I won
against like 25,000 other people so that was cool shut out the international songwriting is
tipping point I think my best in my opinion um not by any means but we won that I mean I mean get
to realize like at that time like I didn't really have any traction I was I was on Atlantic
records the time just shelf like there's nothing going on like there was there was no reach like I
will say this shout out Madison was constant I had like less than a hundred month listeners on
Spotify no reach people are listening to music I was the opening opening act for L King I think it
was the majestic here I did nothing going on I mean but she got a top 10 record with
X's and O's or something and there was a band after me and I walked out in front of you know
X amount of people big crowd so a little acoustic I said excuse me Adams from New Jersey
hope you like the song within a few weeks you know we got up to 25,000 money listeners
streams started happening I mean a lot of uh sleeping in the back of the car but
so Madison's kind of the root of that I'll say actually a lot of grind I mean it's like I was
Nick just released his first single a couple days ago and I'm just like you get it's like every
streams of muscle like every every fan of the merch tables of muscle like you got to work your
through way every single it's never going to get easier it's definitely a boulder you're pushing up
hill yeah three million streams dude no three hundred and two I got two gold records too
actually I'm pretty proud of that one's in Switzerland one's in Canada that's amazing man congratulations
and you were the Amazon breakout artist I don't know how does that happen I don't know Amazon
supports my music super hard actually a shout out I was telling Nick just about this everyone's
like Spotify or like they're just like focusing on all these things that are really competitive and
I'm like a lot of people don't talk about Amazon like Amazon has a big listener base and Amazon
pays 2.5 times as much as Spotify does and it's like if you build your audience up on Amazon which
I've done over the years and have a good relations there and I'm constantly giving them you know my
music so it's like I don't know like that's kind of worked really well for me so just thought you
know wow that's really interesting well I was going to ask you with like what tips we're
hoping coming artists that sounds like a pretty big tip there just focus on the things the other
people aren't focusing on that's my two cents I mean there's always like little niches in there
and like and just connect with the audience I mean me and Nick will be at the merch table till they
kick us out signing whatever and everything that's right so that's the name of the game think like a
cat the pack of dogs yep you have a new album coming out in the fall tell us about the new album
where we can find this Amazon I'm assuming oh it'll be on Amazon oh yeah okay correction I'm
starting to roll out my fourth album in fall I have no idea when it's coming out but the first
single will come out and fall I currently have three albums out in one mixtape put out a lot of music
for the first time ever I'm taking like a couple months I'm not taking a break I'm not like going
to the beach I'm like working on the new album but I'm really pumped about this fourth album I'll
probably be back here in Madison playing up for you guys and I know it's my best work and it'll
be everywhere when it comes out we'll be dropping singles and about a big but a boom you know I love
the dropping singles Nick you sent us a song we're deployed I did yes and just a couple of minutes
tell us about your new music and what you have going oh yeah so I mean I've been kind of I've
been doing a lot of production stuff for a very long time and I had all these songs sitting on
the shelf for so long and I said you know what it's time to time to do this thing man it's now or never
so this song Chloe that I released on the 10th it happened kind of quickly I think I wrote it I don't
know maybe four or five months ago and yeah the lyrics in the the instrumental just kind of unfolded
very naturally and the song means a lot to me and it's about the girl that I'm currently with
right now who I love very much and yeah it's just it's a really song to me shout out Chloe
shout out Chloe what was her reaction when you said here listen to this you know what she was
actually sitting with me while I was writing the song oh no surprise it's crazy I just it
just started happening it was it was kind of magic so we just let it roll man that's really how
it happens and there's video evidence of that which is very crazy that I should pull up and
put out it's got to get everything man it got to get everything squizzley ever drop a surprise
on a lady or surprise like hate the songs about you or this is a love song or I got this song
I got lots but but I got a good one I got this song coming out on my fourth album it's been in
the vault for a long time it's real hot and it's just about like an ex-girlfriend who drinks too much
okay and like I really don't like this woman very much like shout out you know with your arms
like you want me to bury this song I reproduce the bigger and better than ever this one slaps now
bigger better and ever yeah I like that I love that well squizzley atoms you're playing at the
annexes in Madison tonight and I see you brought your guitar sir so can you play us a song before
you go I would be honored to I am going to play a song called stains it is actually the 10-year
anniversary of this song is my first EP ever released 10 years ago in I believe three days and
this was the only project that was out when I played my first ever show here in Madison
was constant that kind of took on a little bit so homecoming for the song maybe it's a song yes
squizzley atoms live on maxing on civic media we're doing it we're ready to roll gentlemen
yeah give them hell if I had the chance
yeah this parking lot ain't no place to dance yeah the devil don't know it's in his hands and I swear
I'd flinch shot when passed concrete jungles will never last so bury me with these stains upon my hands
yeah well they say life is what you got you're going to take your chance to miss your shot
cuz it's a muds that gets chewed on here a lot they'll shine your shoes and take your spot
with just a worn-down taziness parking lot they'll take some stains than no it's what we've got
thank you so much that was stains very nice squizzley atoms live at the annex night with
Nick Lotto I'm sure tickets are still available go down to see Jake tell them the guys over at
maxing radio we say hi gentlemen thank you so much for coming tonight we appreciate you thank you
thank you Nick Lotto we're going to play your song right after the commercial break here you're
listening to maxing on civic media we are local music