Rebel News Podcast - SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Brad Skistimas of Five Times August on his new single, cancel culture and the culture wars

00:00:00.000 The Truckers' Convoy, Cancel Culture, and The Culture War.

00:00:04.420 Joining me tonight is Brad Skatismus from Five Times August.

00:00:08.280 I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Gunn Show.

00:00:10.780 The Gunn Show.

00:00:40.780 The Gunn Show.

00:01:10.780 They ever before used Emergencies Act to seize their property, their businesses, their trucks, and their money, and ultimately arrest and hold them for weeks.

00:01:19.100 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.

00:01:29.460 commenters from the uk australia europe the united states they saw the truckers convoy for what it

00:01:35.540 was a peaceful uprising of people who did something for themselves when all the systems they thought

00:01:40.660 they could rely on to protect them had failed during the pandemic and all those outside

00:01:46.120 commenters well they saw something else too they saw justin chudeau for what he is a soft-handed

00:01:51.460 authoritarian thug who doesn't care about human rights at all someone who exists in an ideological

00:01:56.360 realm somewhere closer to chairman mao than the magna carta all this is to say that i'm excited to

00:02:03.820 have on my show tonight brad skatismus he's an independent musician who has a brand new single

00:02:09.460 out it's called this just in and i think it is an incredible depiction of justin chudeau's cowardice

00:02:16.900 and fragility so joining me now is brad skatismus in an interview we recorded yesterday morning take a

00:02:23.940 listen so joining me now from dallas is brad skatismus you might know him as five times august

00:02:34.000 and i wanted to have brad on the show even though he's been on the show before or on the network

00:02:39.120 before with andrew chapados um i wanted to have brad on the show um because brad has a brand new

00:02:45.660 single out about the convoy but before we get to that in case people are sheila fans and not

00:02:53.860 specifically andrew fans and so you might be a new face to some of the people watching the show why

00:02:59.560 don't you tell us a little bit about yourself yeah uh my name is brad skatismus i started five times

00:03:06.640 august when i was 18 so i've been writing recording releasing music for over 20 years now and um

00:03:13.600 just this last year um i started releasing a series of sort of uh acoustic protest songs

00:03:23.320 kind of hearkening back to the 60s but in a new way with a new perspective

00:03:27.760 and um it sort of changed the trajectory of my career and um it's been interesting to say the least

00:03:35.140 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

00:03:42.620 early 80s country um but it has sort of a blowing in the wind kind of vibe a little bit that sort of

00:03:48.260 protest um that protest vibe um what was it that prompted you to sort of make the switch

00:03:56.040 what was it the one thing that you saw in the world that caused that for you

00:04:00.720 um it was kind of just the world in general and and at the end of uh at the end of 2020 and sort of

00:04:09.600 looking around wondering you know is no is nobody is are no none of my peers in the music industry

00:04:15.260 going to speak up and do i want to look back on this time thinking you know wondering did i say

00:04:21.020 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

00:04:27.560 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

00:04:35.960 chose to jump off the platform and piss off a bunch of fans and uh lose some and then gain a whole bunch

00:04:43.360 a whole new crowd of people that i love and appreciate and who get me and i get them and it's

00:04:48.620 been a wild ride but it's certainly been worth it yeah i've spoken to a few artists and and people

00:04:55.020 along those lines who have said that you know i i felt like i had to do something and i had

00:04:59.600 if being authentic means that i lost some friends and some fans but i was right by myself and right

00:05:08.060 by god then that was the only thing that i could do yeah and these these songs have really been sort

00:05:14.820 of a spiritual partnership too i've i've come to find because the first one i released was called god

00:05:19.440 help us all and it was sort of a prayer in a sense of like look what we've become and you know

00:05:26.020 what else do we have left but to ask god to help us out at this point now um tell me about your new

00:05:35.000 um single because it's called this this just in and it's convoy inspired which i think is fantastic

00:05:43.260 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

00:05:51.980 it's um taking aim at justin trudeau and i was following the the ottawa convoy stuff online um

00:05:59.840 as it was happening live and i was just i i loved every second of it because this was the way to

00:06:06.860 peacefully protest and i felt like um it was it was changing conversation and i was fascinated by the

00:06:14.820 idea that like this whole thing was live streamed by everybody who was there um you could see what was

00:06:21.060 happening as it was happening and you're seeing the bounce houses and these unifying moments of

00:06:26.860 singing and song and um at the same time the media still have the gall to turn it on its head and make

00:06:34.360 it out to be this evil thing and then the leader of the country bails on these people and doesn't even

00:06:42.360 talk to them and and and runs away and says i've got covid or something and then runs away um

00:06:48.600 and i just found that fascinating i was really just inspired by um the convoy in general and um i had

00:06:58.460 other projects i had been working on at the time at the beginning of the of it all um to show some

00:07:05.420 support and by the time the police got involved it it sort of changed the tone and i had to sort of set

00:07:13.020 those aside and i came back around and wrote this one which which um it takes aim at justin trudeau but

00:07:20.200 at the same time is also a message of support for the canadian freedom fighters and and just to say

00:07:26.160 you know keep going and keep standing up for what you you know what you believe in yeah i sort of got

00:07:31.780 uh the sense that the title of the song was also a play on just how bad the media was yeah exactly

00:07:39.080 yeah and and that too that's what i liked so much about the title was like we're so media driven

00:07:44.420 right now that you know this just in is kind of you know it's a common phrase to hear but it paired

00:07:49.200 so nicely with uh trudeau that i couldn't pass it up yeah it was really interesting and fascinating to

00:07:55.940 see how the media lied about the convoy just so shamelessly even though they knew more people were

00:08:03.640 watching the live streams or the work of our journalists here at rebel news live on the ground

00:08:08.500 they knew more people were consuming that that bit of news more than people were turning to the

00:08:15.920 mainstream media for the truth about the convoy yet they still continued to lie they still continue

00:08:21.560 to say that it was this violent misogynistic white supremacist uprising when you're looking around and

00:08:28.860 you're saying bouncy council count castles there's shinny hockey there's you know it's far more diverse

00:08:36.020 than the mainstream media if you're checking demographic boxes and who does that but the

00:08:41.560 mainstream media sure does i mean the crowd was diverse it was peaceful and yet the media were sort

00:08:49.440 of behind this push to crack heads and the government was more than happy to oblige

00:08:55.020 yeah it's amazing i mean the the most beautiful clip i saw from the whole thing was um it was

00:09:03.080 literally people holding hands in a circle from all walks of life singing we are the world

00:09:08.280 yeah and i'm like how when do you ever see this in life and and they still made it a bad situation

00:09:14.660 and in january i i got the same experience i was in um washington dc for defeat the mandates

00:09:21.200 which is a huge rally 35 000 people were there we were on the steps of the lincoln memorial

00:09:26.340 it was a beautiful day um we marched peacefully we didn't have any run-ins with with uh police or

00:09:34.040 anything um it was one of the most unifying experiences of my life but then you read what

00:09:40.120 the media reports about it and you're going i was there yeah like you can see what happened

00:09:46.480 and it's just astonishing that they have this this control and the gall to still push a narrative

00:09:54.020 no matter how blatantly wrong they are you can see the truth for your own eyes and it's frightening

00:10:00.440 that people still even believed it afterwards they have the truth right there in front of them we all

00:10:05.800 have the truth in front of us but people will still choose to sort of turn a blind eye they don't

00:10:11.100 want to admit that they're wrong yeah it's really something to see the media then complain

00:10:16.000 about mean tweets and how people don't respect them and how maybe they might get called fake news

00:10:22.580 out in the public and they can't they don't get it they don't get why the normals are saying yeah you

00:10:31.060 are liars because i can fact check you in real time with my phone on facebook or twitter or instagram

00:10:39.140 live you can literally fact check the mainstream media and they are lying to the public and when the

00:10:44.880 public tells them they're liars they get offended about it it's really fascinating to watch yeah

00:10:50.220 there's a complete disconnect um it's kind of this idea like we're living in the information age

00:10:56.180 right literally in the information age everybody can do the job of a journalist if they really want to

00:11:01.880 they can get out in the street they can document what's happening they can put it online

00:11:05.780 um and you know y'all are doing the real journalist's work you're doing you're you're you're out there

00:11:14.920 you're showing what's true then there's this other side of the journalist i don't mean to say that

00:11:19.200 anybody can be a journalist but you know what i mean sure yeah it's it's a thing you do it's not a guild

00:11:24.340 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

00:11:32.020 say what's true and what's not yeah yeah it's uh it's a weird day and age that we're living in and

00:11:39.460 it seems as though the people are early adopters of good ideas and are embracing the new media and

00:11:45.960 the new way of disseminating information and the journalists of old they are hanging on um with an

00:11:54.740 icy grip to the stranglehold they think they have on the information that the people need to consume

00:12:00.780 yeah and it's kind of like i compare it to like an old sitcom or something from

00:12:06.540 the 80s or 90s where like if you used to watch saved by the bell and zach morris would tell a lie

00:12:12.580 at the beginning of the episode and then he had to keep doubling down on that lie until it crumbled

00:12:17.920 on top of him that's what they're in right now it's like they they've cried they craft a narrative

00:12:23.800 and then they have to keep doubling down triple down on it and keep it going because they they can't

00:12:29.520 go back on the lie until it just crumbles and then they just pretend like they never even said it at

00:12:34.120 all which is the most even more fascinating than anything yeah we're seeing that right now with um

00:12:39.740 oh with the vaccines so they said oh you know just get a vaccine and it's going to stop the spread

00:12:45.820 that's it you get it'll stop the spread you won't get the you won't get coronavirus if you get the

00:12:50.640 vaccine and now they're saying oh we totally never said that it just means that you won't get it as bad

00:12:54.480 oh yeah that's the conversation i have all the time i've supposedly i've supposed to have died

00:13:00.880 like 20 times by now based on the conversations i've had and then when i say well you know i

00:13:05.340 actually had uh somebody will say to me online um you know good luck on that ventilator and i'll say

00:13:11.200 well i actually had covid and it was two days of a headache and sweats and then i moved on with my

00:13:15.640 life and then they backtrack and they'll say well nobody said that you were good you know they do the

00:13:20.360 same thing like well it wasn't going to be that bad for most people and it's like well

00:13:23.940 choose your lane and stick in stay stay in it that's what i've been saying well you know it's

00:13:30.620 it's funny when all of a sudden these people get in an argument and they come around to your way

00:13:35.960 of thinking just you know two years later you're like you just called me a liar 10 minutes ago but

00:13:40.760 whatever yeah um now i wanted to ask you because you are a musician

00:13:45.960 and pop culture is very woke and now the the it sort of seems like the prevailing counterculture i

00:13:56.200 was talking to somebody at a protest about this over the weekend you know the renegades and rebels of

00:14:01.980 music um they used to be you know literally renegades and rebels and now the renegades and rebels of

00:14:10.740 um pop culture they're the traditionalists they're like yeah i'm i don't cheat on my wife i have three

00:14:17.280 kids i go to church what's it like for you to exist in that space uh it's bizarre because i always sat on

00:14:25.520 the outskirts of the sex drugs and rock and roll lifestyle i i thought from afar and i thought well

00:14:31.960 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

00:14:38.180 married i'm a dad who cares about his family and and that's why i'm speaking up now and

00:14:43.420 simultaneously i'm being called dangerous and a misinformation spreader and like to be called

00:14:49.660 dangerous at this point is is a joke because you know what i've never done anything dangerous in my

00:14:55.740 life um and and the it's fascinating because the people going through this particularly in

00:15:02.840 entertainment and stuff you have these relationships with people that you've developed over the years

00:15:07.040 um that i had friendships that spanned all kinds of different ways of thinking that you know you

00:15:13.920 accepted everybody for who they were and i sort of stayed in my middle lane and appreciated everybody

00:15:19.540 the moment i started speaking out about what was important to me a whole you know left side of my

00:15:26.400 relationships friendships associates had just dropped off i wasn't you know i wasn't part of that group

00:15:32.760 anymore um and these are people that are supposed to know who you are and know what your actual values

00:15:40.540 are so by the time you you know i was saying these things through my songs i had expected a little bit

00:15:47.200 more conversation and back and forth and well why do you feel that way but instead it was just a door

00:15:53.440 slammed shut and like i can't believe you've become one of those loonies and um these are this is coming

00:16:00.740 from the side that's supposed to be empathetic and understanding so it yeah and that tolerance is

00:16:07.020 you know pretty extreme to shut somebody out like that yeah it's very again it's so strange to see

00:16:15.180 this side that preaches tolerance not even realizing that actually it's you you've been tolerant the whole

00:16:22.080 time because you sort of sat in the middle heard everybody from this side heard everybody from that side

00:16:26.660 made up your mind didn't write anybody off but the second that you stepped in one direction or another

00:16:32.620 you're just cut right off everything they knew you to be none of it mattered because your politics

00:16:39.020 didn't align with theirs yeah exactly i mean i had fans that were like i'm going to delete your music now

00:16:44.980 um um like you don't even want to ask me like you know what my last 20 years of music has been you know

00:16:52.440 what my message is you don't even want to talk about it like the doors open i didn't ask you to

00:16:57.300 stop listening to my music you're choosing to do that and if you're going to do it with my music do

00:17:02.400 it with every music you listen to then from now on see how that works out for you with every movie you

00:17:07.140 watch make sure their values align with every little thing you know like why just me because i'm

00:17:14.040 more outspoken about it but if i was saying the the irony is if i was saying what they agreed with

00:17:19.220 i'd be getting the complete opposite message thanks for speaking up you're doing the right

00:17:23.820 thing i'm going to listen to you more now you know yeah yeah it's crazy no it is weird and you know you

00:17:29.660 you see these people in the first one to race off to a mark walberg movie and you don't want to remind

00:17:34.460 them that he's like a he's a pro-life catholic but you know but they are he's not as outspoken about

00:17:42.080 it as you you know he doesn't hide it but he's not as outspoken as you and yeah they don't apply

00:17:47.540 that litmus test to the rest of their life and as conservatives or at least people from the right

00:17:52.200 side of the political spectrum we can't do that because there would be so few things in pop culture

00:17:58.280 that we could really consume if we had a purity test for every little bit of music we listened to

00:18:04.620 or every movie that we watched or tv show um there would be nothing for us there were just right you know

00:18:10.600 you and travis tritt and a couple other people that are outspoken about this stuff yeah and a lot of my

00:18:17.400 heroes i mean if i had if i if all the music i listened to was based on the morality of those

00:18:24.780 people i wouldn't i wouldn't be listening any of them i you know but you you i appreciated the music

00:18:30.380 it wasn't about their lifestyle it wasn't about their choices and what they were doing and you know

00:18:34.680 there is a line at some point where you're like well they're just you know there's this they're a 0.96

00:18:39.480 scumbag i'm not going to support their work but everybody has challenges you know there and and uh a lot 0.97

00:18:46.000 of people in the industry have faced addiction and different things like that but you know 0.95

00:18:51.340 we're still humans at the end of the day right and you don't have to cut somebody off just because

00:18:57.420 they're not exactly who you are that's supposed to be the beautiful thing of life in general is that

00:19:03.060 we're all different but you don't you don't end a relationship or or try to shove somebody out

00:19:08.860 because they are different from you that's that's one of the lines in um uh recent song that i wrote

00:19:15.660 called anti-fascist blues which was yeah segregate i mentioned segregate diversity that's the whole

00:19:21.460 thing that's their whole thing is they're they're celebrating and and and chopping everybody into

00:19:27.260 these little tiny blocks in the name of diversity but at the same time it's separating every single one 0.78

00:19:32.980 of us into a little classified labeled group and then they they pick it apart to in a way that

00:19:38.640 gets us to fight and argue with each other and so it's it's celebrate who you are in diversity but

00:19:45.080 also argue with everybody about that yeah i guess the root word of diversity might be division

00:19:51.300 at the end of the day and and i think it's so much of this cancel culture um it's so anti-humanity

00:20:02.940 in that it does not allow for forgiveness it doesn't allow for redemption it doesn't allow for

00:20:09.300 growth growth and it doesn't allow for um the understanding that as humans we're bad at being

00:20:16.640 human like we're not good at this like we're not good at being kind to each other um and and getting

00:20:23.620 through life it's you're constantly learning and struggling and suffering but with cancel culture 0.90

00:20:29.060 there's no allotment for what it means to be a human built into the system you just are pure

00:20:36.160 and aligned with this side and the second you diverge you're just in the in the trash can

00:20:42.360 yeah it's a very black and white way of thinking and there's no middle ground i think that's where a lot

00:20:49.420 of this the the same people in this movement right now fall into that middle ground where they

00:20:55.240 understand these things that that there should be conversation and dialogue and that we are all

00:21:01.040 different and the idea that we need to uh push everybody into one container of thinking is a very

00:21:11.440 dangerous uh way of of moving and and they also don't even realize like when we're all making these

00:21:18.140 comparisons of of uh past historical events and like that's where we're going that's where we're

00:21:26.940 going when you're trying to say everybody over here needs to be look like this act like this talk like

00:21:33.100 this can only say these things that's very dangerous but they don't even acknowledge that uh

00:21:39.060 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

00:21:45.580 to think the same look the same talk the same use the same pronouns um all in the name of diversity

00:21:51.340 um now uh speaking of cancel culture apparently comedy is not allowed on twitter um babylon b has been

00:21:59.440 uh kicked off twitter um how long for you and how are you still on youtube by the way

00:22:07.700 i don't know how i'm still on youtube several of my videos have been attacked over the last year

00:22:13.380 um wikipedia deleted my wikipedia page after oh at least they deleted it usually they just let it

00:22:21.100 get polluted with lies right yeah well what happened was i had a fan notify me and said hey it looks like

00:22:28.080 wikipedia has marked your page for deletion so um i went over and i personally i was like nobody cares

00:22:34.380 about this page i'll update it with all of the most relevant stuff and um they immediately took it down

00:22:40.740 or uh took down all the new information that i had posted because apparently i'm not allowed to post

00:22:46.320 what's true about me only the people on the back end are and so they they ended up deleting the page

00:22:52.900 like i'm taking up valuable real estate on wikipedia of all things some singer songwriter you know like

00:22:59.300 yeah it's crazy um but youtube has uh they attacked my video sad little man about anthony fauci

00:23:06.180 um for medical misinformation of all right i was gonna say you're not allowed to question the advice

00:23:11.680 of a public health officer on youtube it's the bane of my existence because we have to publish

00:23:15.760 two versions of the same video one for youtube and one for rumble because of that rule yeah

00:23:20.740 yeah and and that happened with um another video of mine the second video i released was called jesus

00:23:26.820 what happened to us and essentially the entire video is just raw footage from the last couple of years

00:23:32.680 that you can get anywhere it's just compiled and and in a way um but they had that video was up for

00:23:39.380 a little bit then they decided to demonetize it then a few months later later they decided to make it

00:23:44.920 uh age restricted so you have to be 18 years or older to watch the original edit and it's not even

00:23:50.420 it's not even um it's not even a pg sort of experience you know they've just chosen this so i did

00:23:59.120 have to re-edit that and i re-edited 11 times until it got through to be monetized again but what was

00:24:06.340 happening every time i would edit it because they don't tell you what's wrong with the video yeah just

00:24:11.060 say it's wrong and so i would take out a little clip here and replace it and take out a clip here

00:24:17.500 and replace and see if it would get through and it would it would just i'd upload it click submit and

00:24:23.020 it would already be uh age restricted and demonetized like it like it went through the algorithm

00:24:28.360 perfectly on their end and so i had to figure out a way to do that but um you know these are the games

00:24:33.980 that they play right now and it's it's part of the part of just the whole experience right now and

00:24:40.040 i'm i'm happy to play their game because i think being on those platforms and being loud and obnoxious

00:24:46.140 um you know it's it's what they don't want and i was almost gonna i was almost gonna quit um the big

00:24:53.240 um social platforms last year um until a lot of my fans were like don't be don't go be more places

00:25:01.640 than be you know and and don't go to the echo chambers i'm still on all the all the other

00:25:06.320 platforms but like you want to be loud and obnoxious because they're not going to care if i leave

00:25:11.540 they'll care if i stay and i and they're at the end of the day they're just social media platforms

00:25:16.420 they're not kings so i will say what i want to say until they boot me out and that's what's happened

00:25:21.700 with babylon b and and you know it's crazy because what they're doing is they're it's it's art comedy 0.87

00:25:28.440 entertainment music they're now interpreting art in a way and telling you what you can say as a joke

00:25:36.020 what you can say in a song what you can say in a movie um and people don't recognize that they've

00:25:42.960 crossed a sub a really important line that we should not never have crossed in our lifetime

00:25:50.080 yeah it's um with the stuff with youtube it's almost like self-censorship through onerous terms

00:25:58.720 of service where you're just like you know what i cannot comply with these terms of service i don't

00:26:04.560 even know what they are anymore so i'm just not even gonna bother that i think is the end goal

00:26:09.860 where they can say well i didn't kick you off you just quit uploading yeah because i don't know what's

00:26:15.360 okay to upload anymore um but i'm glad you talked about um sort of the the realm of social media and

00:26:24.320 pop culture and a conservative or at least a freedom-minded individual's role in all of that

00:26:30.800 because i do i do hear that criticism sometimes why are you still on twitter twitter censors

00:26:36.480 conservatives and i respond exactly the same way you do because they don't want me there and that's

00:26:41.180 how you get more of me i'm like the kool-aid man you don't want me there i'm gonna kick down the door 0.96

00:26:44.980 and show up and make a lot of noise um yeah but i see that daily wire has taken a bit of a different

00:26:52.900 approach i think it's a hybrid approach where they still are on all the other platforms but they are

00:26:58.380 creating this secondary sort of parallel ecosystem for conservatives and it's not just

00:27:05.920 a media platform it's not just movies they're you know going into merchandise i think they're

00:27:13.120 starting their own razor line um because the one that advertised with them was a little too woke i

00:27:18.320 think was harry's um what do you what do you think about that is that sort of the way going forward

00:27:23.760 where we have to create our own places to be or do we just sort of shove our way into the other places

00:27:29.740 and say you don't want me i'm here anyway i i think it's a balance of both of those i think that's

00:27:35.740 perfect you know you say fine you know if if you're not going to you know work with me i'll just keep

00:27:41.720 charging through ahead my own way i think that what they did with their razor company is is is hilarious

00:27:47.980 like okay harry's razors isn't going to work for us well here's jerry's razors and it's a it's a way

00:27:54.760 of mocking the whole system that they're part of and they can't stand that and every time they they try

00:28:00.640 to uh suppress you anyway and i just posted this on twitter like an hour ago was like you almost want

00:28:06.600 to be canceled at this point because it brings more attention to what it is they're trying to suppress

00:28:12.320 and that's been my case every step of the way every time they tried to uh keep my message from

00:28:19.000 being heard it got even more attention to the point to where i was on the steps of the lincoln memorial

00:28:26.120 at this huge rally you know singing my music to 35 000 people in january for defeat the mandates like

00:28:33.880 that would have never have happened had i kept my mouth shut and just behaved and it never would

00:28:39.960 have happened had every time i put out a video uh somebody over on youtube or twitter tried to

00:28:46.120 shadow ban a link or you know hide me from the search results it just keeps stair stepping forward

00:28:51.260 i think what you're going to see is it because entertainment and i don't think it's been utilized

00:28:56.560 as much as it should in this movement but music and comedy and um and movies are such an excellent

00:29:06.660 tool to change the conversation that you're going to see this uprising of um arts and entertainment

00:29:13.720 coming up sort of mocking that other side while they make their point on those on those mainstream

00:29:20.460 platforms and every time the platform tries to dock it it's going to get more and more attention

00:29:25.660 that's kind of what happened with dr malone's interview on joe rogan you know they tried to remove

00:29:30.660 it and then everybody goes well what was that interview about what they say and i've had friends that

00:29:35.500 have that work in the medical field who they started this whole pandemic wiping down their groceries

00:29:41.660 with lysol you know and they have eventually come around they watched that interview and they their

00:29:47.920 whole perspective had changed on everything so that's what you're doing you sort of have to let the

00:29:52.600 snake eat its own tail i think yeah i just when my enemies are fighting i just want to stand back

00:29:57.680 and let them do their do their thing they don't need my help um yeah and it's it's it's funny because

00:30:05.160 you know i've sort of a little bit and i probably shouldn't have checked out of pop culture altogether

00:30:12.440 like i said i sort of exist in 1970s to early 80s country um yeah because i can't stand the wokeness

00:30:20.800 like i don't want to know what my soft drink company or my mascara manufacturer thinks about

00:30:26.600 my politics i don't care i don't and i don't want it shoved down my throat but at the same time

00:30:32.320 you make an excellent point how do we change the culture if and fight in the culture war if we're

00:30:40.580 not actively engaged in the cultural battlefields of movies of music of tv um so i guess i'm guilty of

00:30:50.340 walking off the battlefield in some respect and i know that i shouldn't so i guess what what are

00:30:56.480 your words of advice to conservatives who say you know what it's just not worth it i don't feel like

00:31:01.340 getting canceled today they're gonna call my work what's your advice to those people um to get them

00:31:07.640 re-engaged in the culture war um i think it's just a matter of being headstrong and and prepared for

00:31:15.820 battle i mean i kind of walked into this thing um not knowing what was going to happen i knew i was

00:31:21.520 going to lose fans i didn't know my i didn't really think my wikipedia page would ever get deleted

00:31:27.860 because of it you know um stupid but yeah and and look at it from a humorous vantage point because it's 0.69

00:31:34.960 all so ridiculous um and and i'm just as guilty of it too i really don't pay attention to what's 0.99

00:31:42.200 happening on the other end of pop culture until it peaks its way through and you see cardi b i was 0.93

00:31:48.200 just gonna say shizzering somebody on the you know the grammys and you're like that's what's going on

00:31:53.560 like loretta lynn would never do that that's yeah that's why i'm over there loretta lynn would never do 0.78

00:32:00.240 that yeah and i think that there's a trend that's happening where a lot of us that are burnt out on it

00:32:06.640 are regressing back to the things that we grew up with in entertainment i don't really watch any

00:32:11.840 movies that were made prior to like 2000 and 2000 2000 where i'm at yeah and so i think that

00:32:20.400 our generation specifically i think we're going to start pulling back from what's current what's

00:32:27.100 modern what's trendy and what's digital for that matter i think that we need to sort of pull back and get

00:32:32.520 in and reconnect with what's physical um by your media you know a book or a cd or a vinyl record

00:32:41.360 um those things are tangible nation that can't be changed later when they decide that they want to

00:32:49.020 change it right um they're orwell safe just because we have the case say that again i said they're

00:32:56.220 they're orwell safe like that you can't 1984 hard copy vhs you just can't right exactly and and just

00:33:05.280 because like just because we have the ability to live in a digital world doesn't mean we have to

00:33:10.200 live in a digital world i think we need to reconnect with what is physical what and um that goes with you

00:33:18.040 know money and food and all that stuff we just have to be grounded in reality while the other people

00:33:25.880 escape into the metaverse and just let them go because a lot of the people that are angry about

00:33:31.460 you know say what i'm saying what you're saying what you're doing they're ultimately going to find

00:33:36.040 themselves with a set of in a closet somewhere with a set of goggles doped out of their mind on

00:33:41.140 dopamine just focused on the metaverse and we'll be on our merry way yeah and so you know again it's

00:33:47.460 kind of like the snake eating its own tail it's like okay you go down that path shame me blame me

00:33:53.240 whatever you want but i'm going to stay focused on reality and what's happening and work on a better

00:33:58.420 future for my kid yeah yeah these people can have their blue hair and lay on the couch dope straight 1.00

00:34:05.440 up um on their phone and i'll be tending the garden exactly no um you've been very generous with your

00:34:13.680 time and this has been a fun conversation but i'm sure you're a busy guy i know i'm a busy girl

00:34:18.100 where can people find uh your work and importantly support the work that you do because you're an

00:34:25.960 independent artist and i currently before the um call started here i was putting some merch in my

00:34:32.320 basket on your website um especially the i will not be leaving quietly shirt i think that might be

00:34:40.180 my favorite um but tell people how they can support you yeah you can visit five times august.com

00:34:46.960 it's all spelled out f-i-v-e times august.com for um the videos and links to the music and uh

00:34:54.360 merchandise shirts are a great way to support the music um i'm ultimately going to compile all these

00:34:59.500 singles into a physical album at some point and we'll have that for sale until then um you can

00:35:04.920 support the music through um bandcamp.com five times august.bandcamp um if you want to avoid the

00:35:12.440 mainstream outlets although i will say if you love apple or not love apple music but if you like

00:35:17.860 apple music amazon spotify um by all means support the music there because when we charge our way

00:35:26.820 through these mainstream platforms the latest single this just in that i released on friday

00:35:31.980 has topped the singer-songwriter charts on amazon and it's not that i care about the chart position

00:35:37.500 itself but it speaks so much about the movement that this is what people want this is how you vote

00:35:42.460 with your dollar that this song that is taking aim at a world leader and and uh supporting such a

00:35:50.240 important movement that's being suppressed is that is on top with all these other mainstream artists

00:35:57.160 that have a machine behind them that's the power that we have um and so you know by all means check

00:36:04.100 it out on those platforms apple music and amazon brad i want to thank you so much for taking the time

00:36:09.520 to talk to us today and i hope to have you on again um when your next hit single drops well thanks

00:36:16.640 for having me today i appreciate it isn't brad just great and he's brave it's brave to take a stand in

00:36:26.120 an industry that demands complete homogeneity and i cannot wait to see what brad does next maybe he

00:36:34.880 might inspire me to become interested in music from this century anyway if you want to check out brad's

00:36:40.320 music maybe buy a little merch i'll make sure that i include the relevant links in the show notes

00:36:45.680 tonight so that you can support an artist who actually supports freedom let your dollars do the

00:36:51.680 talking well everybody that's the show for tonight thank you so much for tuning in i'll see everybody

00:36:56.280 back here in the same time in the same place next week and remember don't let the government tell you

00:37:02.680 that you've had too much to think

00:37:04.180 you

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Rebel News Podcast - March 24, 2022

SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Brad Skistimas of Five Times August on his new single, cancel culture and the culture wars

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