#03: Stash Konig - on X Ambassadors, Manickin, Web 3.0, GameStop, WallstreetBets and WMD’s
Stash Konig is a Los Angeles based artist, producer, remixer, DJ and show host. Stash first found success making ground-breaking remixes for artists such as Martin Garrix, X Ambassadors, Nervo, U2, Gattuso, Disco Killerz, DiscoFries, and Lenny Kravitz to name a few. Working on these remixes led Stash to creating his own original music. Stash Konig's original song "Craving For More" has achieved over 3 million streams on Spotify where it also reached the Viral 50 in the USA, Canada, and Brazil.
Learn more about Stash Konig at:
You can find OTHER EPISODES | LINKS | TRANSCRIPTION | EXTRA SHOW NOTES at:
https://thekillahcortezshow.com/episodes/episode-03-stashkonig
Let me know what you think about this show by sending me feedback on twitter @killah_cortez
Note: This episode was recorded on 8.14.22
ABOUT KILLAH CORTEZ
Killah Cortez is a music producer, musician, and songwriter based in Los Angeles. Specializing in alternative/indie/pop, Cortez is richly creative with a remarkable gift of enhancing projects and taking listeners on a journey.
Cortez has also landed reviews from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Lyrical Lemonade, and Paste Magazine with his compositions appearing in commercials and tv shows like "Younger".
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“Songs For The Apocalypse” Playlist On Spotify
LINKS | TRANSCRIPTION | EXTRA SHOW NOTES
Renegades by X Ambassadors ( Music Artist )
"Alcohol & Bad Decisions" - Manickin ( Music Artist )
"Somebody's Idiot" - Stash Konig ft. Manickin ( Music Artist )
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Wall Street bets, the Reddit forum
Thinkorswim, which is by TD Ameritrade
fiber optics network cable line from New York City to Chicago
TRANSCRIPTION
Killah Cortez: Welcome to episode three of The Killah Cortez Show. Today's guest is one of my good friends and earliest collaborators in the music industry. We're going to be talking about X Ambassadors, Manickin, Web 3.0, GameStop, Wall Street Bets and Weapons of Mass Destruction. Stash Konig is a Los Angeles based artist, producer, remixer, DJ and show host. He first found success making groundbreaking remixes for artists such as Martin Garrix, X Ambassadors, Nervo, YouTube, Gattuso, Disco Killerz, DiscoFries and Lenny Kravitz, to name a few. Working on these remixes led Stash to creating his own original music. His song "Craving for More" has achieved over 3 million streams on Spotify, where it also reached the viral 50 in the USA, Canada and Brazil. In the show notes below, you'll find a full transcript and links to any of the major topics that we talk about. And also, I recently started a Discord Chat. You'll find that link below where we'll be talking about all things Killah Cortez. I have a little forum there about the phenomenon, a.k.a. UFOs, which we'll be exploring in future episodes. And sprinkled throughout this episode is Songs from My "Songs for the Apocalypse" playlist, half of which were chosen by me and half of which were chosen my stash. You'll find the link to that. Also in the description below, you can also find the Killah Cortez Show on YouTube. Just find my YouTube channel and look for the Killah Cortez Show playlist and I'll have all the episodes there. However, I won't have the music and all that jazz. So yeah. Enjoy this discussion with Stash Konig.
Killah Cortez: Cheers, brother. Thank you for doing this.
Stash Konig: Oh, yeah, brother. Thanks for having me, good shit! Mmm hmmmm
Killah Cortez: What is something you believe that other people think is insane?
Stash Konig: Something I believe that other people think is insane. Oh, man. Something I believe that other people think is insane. I have a, I have quite a few of those, something I believe that other people think is insane... Well, I believe in truly following your own dreams, at whatever cost it is, whether it be eating ramen for dinner every night and peanut butter and jellies and whatever it is, if it's something you believe in, I would I would say I believe in going for whatever it is that makes you happy. Every single day you wake up and finding happiness in those daily efforts and those daily struggles. And I think a lot of people find that insane because they get scared or nervous or anxious when things don't go perfect all the time and when there's kind of not that stability there. Yeah, so I could say for sure, I've had people tell me I'm absolutely crazy for the way I've lived my life and in the past and even now to this day, just because of the fact that, sure, maybe I'm not out there working at 9 to 5 and, you know, making a perfect life by the standards of what people consider a perfect life. You know, I just live by the beat of my own drum and I go for things that I want to go for. And some people and a lot of people think it's just crazy to live like that.
Killah Cortez: Where where do you find the confidence to do that?
Stash Konig: Is it confidence or insanity? I'm not sure.
Killah Cortez: Yeah, I think I think I suffer from the same thing. Like I, I find myself when I get an idea, I'm just like, let's do it. And maybe it's I'm just not looking at it enough and I'm just like, let's see. But there is a little craziness, I think. I think especially doing music, there is some you have to be a little bit crazy to want to like you're like you go from starting it in your bedroom and then you're like, I'm going to I'm going to live with this. At that point, it just it's crazy.
Stash Konig: As soon as you decide that, you're ready to really take the leap and even people who decide to take the leap they like, sometimes they will fall off and decide it's not for them. But confidence wise, I just believe in my abilities, you know, and I would rather it be me than somebody else because I know how and this is maybe selfish sounding or whatever, but I know how jealous are, just kind of, you know, how it kind of rubs me the wrong way when I see people, you know, get to the point where I want to be or where I feel like music could take me, that if I didn't keep chasing that in a competitive way and I didn't keep going after it, and I just kind of took the, hey, I'm going to go get a regular job and just be cool with that life. It would drive me nuts. It would literally drive. And so there's this part of me that has to chase that dream because it's, it's, it's in me. It's I eat, breathe, sleep, music. And that's, that's what literally gives me the confidence and the drive to continue.
Killah Cortez: Music and now a lot of other things too, which we'll get into.
Stash Konig: Yeah, yeah.
Killah Cortez: What have you been listening to lately?
Stash Konig: Funny enough, I've actually been going through, like a lot of older, just a lot of different older, kind of I don't even want to say older, but a lot of mid nineties rock music to like early 2000's metal stuff. Like I started revisiting Linkin Park my favorite band of all time, so I started just going back and revisiting kind of that era because it's funny listening to like the up front stuff with the dance music and kind of doing the stuff that I make and listening to pop music and things like that. You can listen to it and get inspired by it and really, you know, understand where the current landscape of music is. But for me, I like to go back and listen to things that made me fall in love with music in the first place.
Killah Cortez: Yeah.
Stash Konig: So, you know, the Blink 182’s the Linkin Park's the even, you know, Static X, Slipknot, all these different people that inspired me and even going back, you know, Dr. Dre and just a lot of the stuff like that I've been listening to lately more, but in a new way, I actually, Muse has a new EP out that was Dude, they're rocking on that shit. Like, if you haven't. Have you heard this?
Killah Cortez: I haven't heard it yet.
Stash Konig: Dude, do yourself a favor
Killah Cortez: I didn't even know they were still around.
Stash Konig: Bro. They just put out and it's probably the hardest shit they've put out in a minute it fucking bangs. So I really like that project they just put out. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I've even been like kind of just reverting back to different time signatures, listening to Tool and things like that. I mean, I just like anything that kind of just gets my ear and brain thinking more than the logical kind of in the box, four on the floor.
Killah Cortez: Sure.
Stash Konig: And then how can I bring that back to what I'm making if I even can, you know.
Killah Cortez: So like for me, when I when I listen to rock music or any kind of like any music except EDM, I find myself like trying to break it down in my head for you. Is it like the flip for you? Because what I used to do is. it doesn't work anymore but what I used to do for a long time is if I needed to like zone out, I put on some like just some EDM channel in the background because I wouldn't have to like I wouldn't want to think about it. I just kinda like vibe. Yeah. Do you do the reverse or is it how does it work for you?
Stash Konig: So I think to answer your question. I kind of break everything down super individually now. It used to just be I'd put a drum track four on the floor while I'm creating and then kind of build off of that. I think doing it in a different way now because everything I ever made. So when it first started, even when I first started in hip hop with like, you know, doing different, you know, hip hop beats and stuff like that, it would always be drums and like bass or 808 subs and stuff, and then it would get into dance. Same thing. I would start with drums and a bass line. Now it's really interesting how sometimes just sit there and do the complete reverse of what I used to do so I can just hear it in a different way. Yeah, but again, it is very easy when you listen to something that to to, to most people's ear. Let's be honest. Dance music is a very simple thing in many ways, but it's also very complex. If you decide to break it down and really understand the chord progressions and the amount of layers that go into creating a huge synth sound and things like that. Yeah, I hope that kind of answers what.
Killah Cortez: yeah and I don't mean it as a knock because what I absolutely I mean, I love dance music, but I know.
Stash Konig: What you're saying. What becomes very kind of repetitive after if you're not breaking down the dynamics of it, you can put it in the background.
Killah Cortez: What I love about dance music personally is that like it's about the the it's just about tension and release and there's not much else and it doesn't really matter how you achieve it. Like other musical genres, you achieve it through chords or you achieve it through the melody. And in EDM, you know, it's really usually done with like builds and risers and it's, it's a totally different take on the same feeling. So like, as, as a person who's musically inclined, it really helps me just kind of chill and not my brain doesn't want to go there and think about it. I'm like, Yeah, rise it up, rise it up. You know?
Stash Konig: Absolutely. You mentioned my favorite my favorite term possibly in music, which is tension and release. And I live by that in every production I've ever made. So if you listen to anything in my catalog, whether it be the the EDM stuff, whether it be, you know, the more alternative rock stuff that you know or hip any of it, it's all tension and release. And that's that to me is what makes music. Music is because you feel these ebbs and flows in life on a daily basis. Everything is an ebb and a flow. And to me when you have the verse has, you know, for example, in rock music a verse, you have a palm mute guitar and then the, the chorus comes in, it opens up and becomes this huge, really loud and amazing thing. Same thing with dance music. Like you said, the rise is into the drops and that did the boom, boom, boom. And it opens up. I just love that. It's euphoric. It's a feeling of euphoria every time. And it just has that almost that mirror of life. Those ups and downs.
Killah Cortez: So, and correct me if I'm wrong here, you got your first big break with a bootleg remix of Renegades by X Ambassadors, and that eventually parlayed into a deal with Interscope. Can you tell that unbelievable story to the listeners?
Stash Konig: It's a pretty funny story, actually. So I think it was the summer of 2015 and we were just getting all kinds of things were going on personally, like with family. My parents had moved out to New York on like a last minute thing. My dad had a job transfer. It was just this whole thing was going on in the whirlwind and ended up my sister was living with me at the time and I we had one car to share and I was taking her into work and I would take her into work on in the morning. And then I'd go back home and work on music and then I'd go pick her up later or whatever. So I get into the car one morning and taking her to work. I drop her off, I'm coming back towards my house and this song comes on KROQ and it's, I believe it was the first day, if not the first week they decided to play that song. And it was X Ambassadors, "Renegades". And I'm just hearing this, this folky alternative kind of acoustic guitar with a very prominent voice, and it just sounded really cool to me. But I was also thinking like, this could turn into a really great dance song too. So I went home and like, I deal with everything I look up does is there a remix for it? And you can even barely find information on the song. It was that brand new. And so besides a few pieces of little press about it and stuff, it was not there. So I went and I legally downloaded the mp3, but this is the funniest shit. I, I downloaded the top three and the original remix that I, that I put out there as a bootleg was an MP3 that I just cut off the low end to like probably almost 200. I remember. Yeah. And then I just remade everything under it with the low end of it and then kept the high ends and did some other things and just made tweaks to make it into a dance song. And so I put it on SoundCloud and at the time, I mean, I had released a couple of other like of my own originals, but they weren't really doing a whole lot and they were just kind of getting my feet wet in the dance music world. And so I put out that record on SoundCloud, and I want to say within a week and a half it went from getting maybe like 1000 listens a day. I signed on one day and this was when like it clicked. I was just I look and it said 11,000 streams in the last 24 hours. I was like, this has to be a glitch. Like, this is wrong, right? Like this is no way this is real.And so I go, I refresh the page, I look in the analytics and the numbers are not changing. And I'm like, Oh, great, okay, cool. Maybe who did I get reposted by? And I couldn't figure it out. So the next week goes by and next thing I know, in the following five days I was up over 100,000 streams and I'm like, okay, something's happening here. So then Geronimo, who I ended up later becoming very good friends with, but Geronimo at the time I didn't even know who he was necessarily more than the fact that he was the DJ on on Sirius XM BPM. Well, he turns out to be the program director as well. And so he calls the shots. And so he reached out to me via an email saying, Hey, we were looking for a remix of the Renegades remix. And at the time this is and you know, it's a shame SoundCloud isn't what it once was and I'm not trying to knock SoundCloud, but man, dude, SoundCloud used to be the best for being able to put up a bootleg or a DJ mix and things like that. And then it got very regulated and now you can't really put up anything like that. But SoundCloud was the best for that because it gave an opportunity for an artist like me working out of my bedroom, producing a bootleg to put it up there and have somebody at Sirius XM say, Oh, well, we can't find an official, let's go on to onto SoundCloud and then we'll use that version on BPM. And at the time, sure. Was I not getting like a credit for a spin? That's fine. It's a bootleg and it was all going to X Ambassadors, but whatever it still was my remix and it was enough exposure where I was like, Oh, this is cool. But it got even cooler after that. So they so he hits me up and I was probably on like a Thursday or Friday to tell me that. And I had just watched this thing go over 100 K and, and so on. The following Tuesday I got a call from a random. It was a random. I think it was like a two on three number. And I'm like, Oh, it's probably solicitation, whatever. And I almost didn't answer it and I don't know what it was. Something in my gut was just like, Yeah, answer it, you know, screw it. See what happens. Pick up the phone. Hey, this is Interscope Records. We love your bootleg, and we know that Sirius XM BPM is playing it. Can we sign this as the official remix? I'm sitting there. First off, you know, this is Dr. Dre, Eminem. I mean, you just think about Interscope. Wide range of artists that I've listened to in my entire life. And it's it's a lot of the people who I really, really admire and enjoy and like listening to. So a label that I'm very familiar with and they're calling me wanting and I'm just like, Oh, this is incredible. Okay, wait a minute. Let's see what we got here. This is cool as hell. And so they called. They're like, We want to sign it now here. Listen, I'm this is this is for everybody out there who thinks this sounds like the most amazing story and that I got rich real quick and everything went all hunky dory and whatever. But this is also a lesson in why sometimes you have to kind of take a sacrifice. So to to put it kind of just to put it to put it simply. Interscope hits me up for this. They said, okay, we'll get back to you the next day with the contract. And I get the contract the next day and it says, we will sign this as the official remix and put this thing behind it for promotion. And you can do your own music video as a remix video, whatever. No budget, but find your friend to go. Whatever. Yeah. And at the bottom it said, we will pay you $1 USD. And that's not that's not a joke. That is because to make the contract legal and official, they didn't want to. They weren't going to pay me anything. They were going to use it. And basically what their offer was is we'll give you a platform that you've never otherwise have.
Killah Cortez: Right.
Stash Konig: And at the beginning of it, I was like, you know what? Maybe it sucks that I'm not getting paid. And then I thought about it. I'm like, you know, I need I need exposure in any way I can. And they knew that and they knew. Listen, there are no rookies. And so they said to make the contract official, it'll be for $1 USD. Still haven't gotten that $1 but you know whatever. And they, they made the contract and I said, you know what, let's do it. And so I signed on. And now you're all probably sitting there thinking, man, this guy got screwed. But no, I didn't, because the reason why I'm sitting here right now today is because of that remix, because people heard that remix, because it played in the Netherlands on and NRJ Radio, because it played on BBC Radio One, because it played on Sirius XM BPM and and it opened the door to have all of these other DJs and producers reach out to me and say, Oh, what a great remix. And then I became close with certain people through it. And it's and it's helped me build what I have now.
Killah Cortez: Now, right then you got to remix all kinds of other incredible records because.
Stash Konig: Of that bingo. That's the thing. Now from there, that remix where I took zero on led to me getting paid remixes to this day. And so that really, truly was one of those moments where, you know, you hear a lot of people and they sound almost bitter when they're like, Yeah, the music business doesn't pay anything. And it's like, Yeah, in the beginning, you know what? They don't because, you know, there's a million other people who are just like me who have the exact same opportunity to do what I just did. But the thing that separates them is, do you believe in yourself long term or are you here for a quick cash grab? And I think that's honestly another part of why they kind of they do this kind of lowball initial offer type thing. It's to be like, listen, if you really are about it, this is your vehicle. And if you're here for just the money, then you know what? We're not interested.
Killah Cortez: Yeah, and it's also about betting on yourself. Like you knew that there's more where that came from and you know, you're going to be able to rinse, repeat, and this just elevates you to rinse, repeat on a higher level.
Stash Konig: And it gives you that motivation to know and also that confidence like we were talking about earlier, confidence. It gives you that confidence to know like I can and I am capable of doing these things.
Killah Cortez: Yeah, totally
Stash Konig: And sure. Are there one hit wonders out there? But like, let's be honest, if this is something, you know, if you if you know you're passionate about something and you're ready to ready to chase it, man, go, go, go.
Killah Cortez: Hell, yeah.
Killah Cortez: All right, let's talk about Manickin.
Stash Konig: Yeah.
Killah Cortez: By the time this podcast comes out, we already got a new single out. "Alcohol & Bad Decisions". How did the project come about? You know, for the listener.
Stash Konig: Okay, well, simply put, I was in a relationship and not that it completely started off of a relationship. I was getting more into just exploring different sounds and stuff, probably around like 2016, 2017. And I just broke out the guitar again and started just playing some riffs over some electronic beats and it kind of started to blend together well enough. And it, in a weird way, sounded almost like some kind of pop punk, little emo alternative with the chords I was playing and the different riffs I was putting down. And I was like, Be really cool if maybe I put an emo vocal over this. And so the reason why I brought up the relationship for it is because I was almost writing music in this beginning period that was getting these feelings off of my chest without actually addressing that. I actually felt that way in real life. Do you know what I'm saying? Sure. And so it was almost like these thoughts were in my mind for sure. But instead of actually addressing them in real life, I was like, Oh, let me just write a sick emo. Sorta like a sick song about like life and relationships. And it wasn't until after we broke up like that, I looked back and I was like, Damn. I was like, almost like writing a foreshadowing tale of what happened in my life anyways. So I make this one beat. It sounds cool. I decided like time for some vocals on it and so threw some threw some vocals on it. And this song became what's now known as "Somebody's Idiot" and somebody's idiot I just took a risk on it. It was different from the kind of EDM and and dance music that I had been making, right?
Killah Cortez: And that came out as a Stash Konig joint featuring Manickin.
Stash Konig: Exactly. And it was Stash Konig featuring Manickin. And we ended up we we got some really great love on it and got on the "EmoTron" playlist on Spotify. And from there, that song and the reason why I decided to continue forward with the Manickin thing. I've been hit up about that song more than any other song consistently for the last like four or five years since I put it out about people saying how much it meant to them and how the words really connect with them. And you know what? All I did was just be super duper honest in a song and decided to write how I felt, you know? You know, I picture myself getting lost with you, you know what I mean? Like, it's just these things like that go on in a relationship, but at the same time, you're almost like being pushed to the brink. And, you know, so that's somebody's idiot is just somebody being pushed to their absolute limits. But instead of repeatedly doing it over and over, you're like, Well, I could get out of this, or I could be somebodies idiot, you know what I mean? And so that was where that came from anyway. So the song got really great reaction. A lot of people were were into it and I said, you know, and I had already done a second song and I was about to put it out. And then I was like, You know what? Instead of just putting out the only other one I have, I want to actually make this a project. And that was when I started writing the other stuff. And eventually, like, you joined the process and we ended up getting in the studio and really polishing the records and making what I think is an incredible project. Like, I'm very excited about what's to come with this and "Alcohol & Bad Decisions" now is the next single. So it's, it's some, it's, it's something that started out as a complete passion project, you know what I mean? Like somebody's idiot was just because like, man, I grew up listening to, like, a lot of that, you know, Blink 182 or My Chem or I mean, all these different, you know, all of those great, great bands that just to me, I'm surprised there's not more music to this day that comes out like that because it is so good and we find ourselves reverting back to kind of those eras same.
Killah Cortez: You know, and that whole genre definitely dropped off a cliff like 2005, I'd say, and beyond. And I think now it's definitely had a resurgence.
Stash Konig: Absolutely.
Killah Cortez: And it's yeah, it's it's so fun. Kind of tickled those, those same tendencies on this project.
Stash Konig: Absolutely, man. That's I that's been I think my biggest like pleasure point in this record is kind of just exploring some of those. Those roots of where my my love for music comes from, you know?
Killah Cortez: So Web 3.0. I know, I know. You've kind of been big on that. We've had some small chats about it…… for artists that that are interested but are like a little scared of the concepts or like just unsure, break it down. Like what from your perspective, what kind of opportunities do you see for artists or small business owners or whatever, whatever it is? What do you what do you see for them with Web 3.0?
Stash Konig: Okay. So Web 3.0 is an expansive topic. Like there's many different levels and layers and things to be explored. I think it is an awesome space. I think there is definitely a future for this space. I think this whole metaverse idea, while it still may scare some people and they're going to deny it and be like, Oh, this is well, nobody wants to live in a headset or whatever. I think there's a big enough market and enough people who understand the technology where I think there is going to be something to be said for the metaverse and Web 3.0 now, where the art and creativity side comes in and business side even really what it comes down to is figuring out. The. The goods or the the services that you have to kind of put out in the world. And it's. A way to have people who really are your fans interact with you in ways and and on levels that they couldn't otherwise do. So right now, for example. Right, you have Spotify. And as a listener, I go on and I type in your music and I listen to your Spotify and you're getting, what, 0.000 $0.03. ( fact check: its more like .006 per stream on Spotify) Right. So it's very minute. And now, as a listener, I hope Killah Cortez puts out more music. I want to hear from you. I want to know when your next thing is going to happen and all of that. But from Killah Cortez's standpoint, 0.00 $0.03 on a stream doesn't really make a ton of sense for you long term to have a sustainable business model. Right? So where this whole web and this is just one example, but this is where I want to start. Here is where Web three comes in is it's almost a new way to crowdsource, you know, your people who support your project.
Stash Konig: They come in, Hey, Killah Cortez, we love your music. How can we support you? And you say, Well, listen, I'm going to offer you this NFT, for example. And for those who don't know Nfts Non-fungible token, if you don't know that, look it up, learn about it. It's important. So and don't be afraid of it. And right now it is the wild, wild west out there. There's a million projects that are scams and schemes, but it's the same thing that happens with every new technology that that has the potential to be great. It needs to have it shake out, period. And I think that's what's currently happening before us, which is why I know a lot of people are skeptical because they see certain things go from 10000 to 0 in like two weeks and that that is a scary scenario. But there is real use cases, there is a real business model for these type of things anyways. So back to my point. So you have you have these listeners who really enjoy your music and you say, I'm going to do this, I'm going to offer up an NFT and I have a new album coming out and I'm going to for this album, I have ten songs on the album, right? And for every song I'm going to offer 100 nfts and at. Point 5% of royalties and those 100 nfts are going to include 0.5 of a royalty. So you'll get the song. But if you also buy the NFT, you're going to get a percentage of the future sales, right?
Killah Cortez: For the song.
Stash Konig: For the song. Now, here's the thing.
Killah Cortez: Would that be streaming only or how does that work?
Stash Konig: It can be. Well, this is however the artist wants to offer it. Is it going to be is it going to be just streaming or are you going to do streaming, touring income, merch income and they get a piece of the whole pie. It just depends on how you want to break it down. Now, what I've seen majority is that it's usually been just solely the music, but. You know, you offer, the more the merrier, because it makes your listener and the person who's excited about your music even more excited when they get incentive to want to purchase your not only purchase your NFT because they they want to support you, but it also can be an incentive for them to invest because they will get a return on investment. And you know what else it does, too, and this is what makes me excited, is it gets people talking again. Mm hmm. So say I'm like, Hey, I just bought the new Killah Cortez NFT. And with it comes the access to the single before anybody. Half a percent of a royalty, which I'm sure a half a percent in the grand scheme of things doesn't sound like a bunch, but what are you getting otherwise when it comes to listening to music? You're not. You're actually paying $9.99 a month to most subscription services and you're you're you're cool to tell your friends to put it on a playlist. But what about if you could tell your friend, Hey, this artist is awesome and you can get a small piece of the catalog, and on top of that, that person goes and tells their friend, and now you have this word of mouth thing starting to build because and the thing is, that word of mouth to this day is still one of the greatest, you can buy as many followers as you want. You can pay for as much advertising as you want. The thing I learned most, and especially over like the pandemic, is there are so many people out there who enjoy things and want to have access to to artists and want to have an opportunity to be able to even just like workshop it up and talk or whatever. And this is where all this is another layer to these nfts. So you put that NFT out and it's like, okay, you can have that half a percent. You can get VIP to whatever shows in your city. When I come on tour there, you can also have access if you wanted. You know, you do these different layers and levels of what the what the NFT gets. And so maybe you say and also on top of that, they get a monthly seminar with Killah Cortez and you go online and you show up and you give them, you know, a little tutorial on how you maybe made a song or or you do a workshop on production or something, you know, I mean, things that they otherwise can't get or access by just literally signing up for a service of a, of a, of a subscription. And, and listen, you know what I mean? There's many other ways to really become almost a part of the project.
Killah Cortez: Right.
Stash Konig: And so I think that's what's exciting is getting people to be a part more than just listening.
Killah Cortez: I think what's happening now and even this podcast is a testament to it, is that like the definition of an artist is widening. And so like for, for me, this is a way to connect with fans in a different way than just the music where I mean, I love, I love creating music. That's what I do. 24/7 But I think it can be hard to like get to know somebody. And I think I think now because those, those barriers have come down so much, like you almost have to give people access a little bit to like who you are because they do want to they just want to get if they can elsewhere when they see you, they're going to want to get that close as well. So it's important that you can relate. And I think I think what you're saying makes sense that, like, if if a fan comes in, they're going to be stoked. They could be a part of whatever, whatever it translates to and web 3.0, whether it be nfts or in the metaverse or whatever that that is. Yeah.
Stash Konig: Absolutely.
Killah Cortez: What is your favorite movie?
Stash Konig: Oh, my favorite movie. My goodness. Oh, a way to just totally put me on the spot here. Boy, my favorite movie where I could literally probably watch it over and over again and still laugh my ass off. And this is going to just let you know how immature my personality is now. But old school. Old school is probably my favorite movie of all time.
Killah Cortez: So many people have told me old school and I. I know. I've seen it. It's been a minute, though.
Stash Konig: Yeah, like, if that's my favorite just watchable movie, I mean, obviously, there's like the more serious movies, like, you know, like The Departed. I really enjoy that movie. You want to know? Probably my all time is like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, man. Like, from when I was three years old. Till now, I can still watch that movie and it still is just as good and trips me out just as much.
Killah Cortez: What's your like Comfort movie where you throw it on in the background?
Stash Konig: Ferris Bueller's Day Off , That's an easy answer. I know that one for sure. Any time I'm ready to just chill. "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". I know it front to back. If I want to tune into it, I can still enjoy it. And if I want to just have it in the background. In the background.
Killah Cortez: I love that.
Stash Konig: That movie is great, man.
Killah Cortez: What is the best or most worthwhile investment you've made? And it could be an investment of money, time, energy or any other resource. And how did you decide to make that investment?
Stash Konig: All right. The best investment I ever made that is outside of the stock market is. My turntables, my DJ turntables, and the other one would be when I was 15 and a half, and I saved up all my birthday and Christmas money and bought my first Pro Tools. Pro Tools seven. Yeah. Yeah.
Killah Cortez: Early adopter.
Stash Konig: No. For real. That was I. I always so.
Killah Cortez: Dude I think I started on six. So we're pretty close.
Stash Konig: Yeah, we're pretty close. Yeah. It was pro tool seven LE. I think it was like it was, it wasn't the top one, but they used to have those levels and as is the Pro LE Pro Tool seven. And that's how I got my start. I just started cramming YouTube videos on what it was to record audio and make . Because I started early, like in in high school, I was DJ'ing parties and even in middle school, like I was like I remember I bought like a real freaking cheesy, like Toys R US DJ set up and I figured out how to run it.
Killah Cortez: Wait they used to sell DJ setups at Toys R Us?
Stash Konig: Dude, they were like toys. They weren't even supposed to work. But I figured out the wildest thing. I figured out how to connect it to the songs I downloaded off.
Killah Cortez: Was it like two turntables?
Stash Konig: Listen, please don't arrest me. I figured out how to take the songs. I download it off a LimeWire and fire them off of the fucking off of the off of the off of the little toy that they made at Toys R US. And I started, like, just fucking playing parties and people, and it worked. It was two decks that didn't move at all. Like you couldn't turn them or spin them. They were buttons on the decks and you could fire tracks and it was like barely beat matching, but I could do it well enough where it was. Okay. Yeah. So that got me into.
Killah Cortez: Wait you were rolling up the parties with that?
Stash Konig: Goddamn right. You know, It was like little kids parties back then, cake and cookies. We weren't even drinking back then. I was just playing, like, fun songs. Like,
Killah Cortez: How old were you?
Stash Konig: This was seventh grade. Okay. Yeah, like little friends pool parties
Killah Cortez: Dude, I imagined you in like in high school or something.
Stash Konig: Yeah, well, in high school, that's when it got a little more serious. I finally bought, like, a controller, like, and got a little bit more serious about it, but that led me into wanting to make music. And then I started making music. And then when I was 22, I bought my first pioneer DJ, set up, CDJ 900's and a DJM 800 mixer, and then I upgraded that to the DJM 900 Nexus eventually. But yeah, like I bought those that then, then my obsession of DJing like kicked real heavy. Yeah. And I just started crunching that. So between those I would say my first Pro Tools and my first DJ turntable investment, those are my greatest investments ever because it led to like my life now.
Killah Cortez: Hell yeah,
Stash Konig: So that was outside. But I will say like if we're speaking of investments, I'm going to definitely have to shout out my greatest stock market investment, and that would be GameStop, no question about it. And the apes go wild and the apes go wild and shout out to Roaring Kitty - Keith Gill You know, I mean, like a shout out to Rod Houseman and everybody else who was early on who I actually like would just follow what they were kind of just writing about it and things like that. And then I just kind of would look into it myself and I was like, you know, I always shopped at GameStop my whole freaking life. I love video games. That's like another part of me that is just like heavy, heavy. I'm a gamer, big time gamer, like. And so when when a video game retailer that I frequented personally myself was about to apparently be put out of business, I was like, I need to I need to put a stop to this. And so I ended up investing and I, I ended up investing. I invested all the way from like around, around like $9 when I first got in and then I wrote it all, I kept buying all the way up until $33 and I got up to over 200 shares and just watch this shit go up into the three $400 range. And I was just like, Is this real life right now? And had some call options on it that like it was wild. It was really, really wild experience and I'm grateful for it because as you know, that was like happened in January 2021, which is right after probably the hardest year for musicians and anybody in the music industry ever. Unless you were a label, you were killing it and the pandemic. But like as an artist. Dude,
Killah Cortez: Yep, touring stopped all everything stopped.
Stash Konig: I had no touring. I had a residency stop. I had I mean, it was just like everything life put a brake like the brakes on real fast. So thank God for that because it really did. It allowed me to to be able to take a breath for the first time in a while. And so that was yeah, but shout out GameStop, shout out all the people, all the, all the early people who were who were jumping in those YouTube streams for roaring kitty. And it was a life changing.
Killah Cortez: You're the host of a Twitch channel called GME War Room. Tell the listeners what's the story behind that and what they can expect to see.
Stash Konig: Yeah. So what ended up happening is. Like I said early on, we would all kind of show up into these YouTube streams for the GameStop thing specifically, and this is where the streaming kind of the idea sparked for me is. So we would we would kind of have these little think tanks almost where we'd go in and we'd say what we saw and we and it would be it would just be Roaring Kitty, talking about things and we would just kind of be typing in the YouTube chat and stuff like that, but kind of in a way just exploring deep value companies, which means that these companies are in our eyes undervalued and they seem to be on the verge of a potential maybe bankruptcy or going out of business. But there's enough potential in the company where there could, if the right people got in charge, turn the company around and turn something like a $2 share GameStop into something, you know, worth more than a several hundred dollars a share. Mm hmm. And so that sparked my interest because all growing up and really in the classes that I ever took. So I as an elective and honestly, I'll be honest with you, the first year I took it in my high school elective, it was because it was just easy.I thought it was going to be easy credit. So I was like, Yeah, whatever I'm going to and maybe I'll learn a little something. And then the teacher I had shout out to, Mr. Papata got me and like, that's the only, I'll be honest, that's the only teacher I'll ever really shout out. Like, I hated school. I was not a I was I was really not big into school. But there's, there's like that one teacher that you have where it's like you some people are lucky enough to have them. Some people don't ever have them.
Killah Cortez: You feel like you connected
Stash Konig: where you like connect with that person and they are like, they make sense to you, you know what I mean? And they want you to succeed. And it's not just handing you a book to read or and they're actually, like, involved in teaching. So this dude seemed to be like he was passionate about investments and I was like, interesting. So I ended up taking it again in my senior year and then I ended up studying it in my first couple of years of college. And, and it made me just more aware I wouldn't say it made me a good investor by any means. It just made me more aware that there was a place to put your money to grow more gains than just a savings account, getting you small, small percentage year over year. And I was like, okay, cool. Like if I am going to do this music thing and I am going to hopefully make some money like that would be where I want to hopefully put some more money because I want it to grow for me. And so yeah, I got into it. Like I said, we were in these little think tanks and then Keith His position got roaring. Kitty His position got so insane, like he put down 50 grand on GameStop. In the beginning, I think it was like 53,000. I'm just off the top of my head. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but it was like 53,000 and some options as well. So he had shares and options and I mean, he turned it into over like 13, 14 million off the bat. It went even higher than that after it started. But anyways, so when it got that crazy he said he was going to like kind of not stream anymore because I and I don't blame him the dude just you know he's like I'm going to take a step back and I'm like, dude, if anybody deserves it.
Killah Cortez: I'm about to go to Belize, right now
Stash Konig: Yeah, exactly. Like, dude, you better be on an island smoking cigars and drinking fancy tequila because that's pretty fucking great. And so there was like, this void for people, like, they didn't have that stream or that think tank. And I was like, You know what? I'm going to throw a stream up and see what happens. But I did it from my perspective of like more of a musical standpoint. So I would talk about stocks, but I also made it more of like a radio show where I'd play music and we'd kind of make it interactive and people could request songs and we'd listen to music and talk, you know, stocks and talk shop, but, you know, and then just talk life. Yeah. And at first I didn't know what I was starting or getting into in terms of like the potential or I just I literally just missed what I had when I, when we would all just go meet up. And then within a week of starting that stream, it was I think it was six days after I started that stream. That was the January 20, 21 squeeze of all these of GameStop and AMC and Bed, Bath and Beyond, BlackBerry, Nokia, all these random all they all just shot up because they were all in this same kind of basket of short interest stocks. And they were. And the retail ones specifically were. Yes, they were obviously supposed to fail during the pandemic because they were already struggling businesses. But I think, again, suckers anyways. So we all started kind of meeting in in my spot and then from there that thing blew up and there's, you know, I'm sure if you're familiar with investing or even any of these stories you've heard of Wall Street bets, the Reddit forum at some point or another. So we were all in there prior to this when there was, you know, a few thousand people in there. I think now there's over like I want to say. A million, 12 million. And who knows what happens in there anymore? It gets kind of trippy.
Killah Cortez: You can't even read it.
Stash Konig: Well, yeah, you don't. Anything that's quality really anymore gets kind of pushed to the bottom by just memes and stuff. I mean, it's still every now and then funny to go like, look at the stuff and kind of read sentiment in there. But in terms of actually getting real plays in there, like you used to be able to, like people would literally for free go in and write like full on financial advisor, due diligence like style financial advisor style write ups and.
Killah Cortez: Like Mark Cuban chimed in or something like that?,
Stash Konig: Yeah Mark Cuban. He came. I mean, there was a lot of people who who saw what was going on and probably learned that, you know what I mean? And didn't. But and then saw this especially like he chimed in when the buy button got turned off because everybody knew. So what happened is if you're not familiar and I'll just put this out there, so when the when the stock prices started going wild on GameStop and it went upwards of like $400. Robinhood this app, which everybody started investing with during the pandemic because it was really easy and accessible and they had a great user interface. I mean, and it was everybody was, Oh, this is a great thing. I could put my money in here and invest and I don't have to go through a brokerage and all this. It makes it more accessible to the everyday person. Well, this price started going so crazy and I won't get into like the full on breakdown of why it did what it did exactly and why they shut it down. But let's just say there were some people who were in some very deep water underwater, basically with their positions. And GameStop, however, they had enough financial power over the markets to be able to get Robinhood and a few other brokerages to completely stop allowing people to buy the shares. But here's where. So it'd be one thing if you stopped people from buying and selling. The problem here was that they stopped people from buying. But you could still sell. What does that do? If it's all supply and no demand, the price instantly is going to drop. It's there's no other way for it to go. Nobody can buy more shares. You cannot drive a anything up stock market or not. Nothing goes up if you can't buy it. So like what happened with Robinhood, they said it was a liquidity issue. They said that Robinhood had lended money out to too many people on margin and that's what it's called. So basically what happens is you either go on that app and put your own money in or you can if they accept you to do this, you can borrow on margin, which is basically them loaning you the money or the collateral to buy your shares. And then if the price of that goes up, they'll take what you owed them and you keep the profit. And if it goes down, you own what you own. But that's it's a thing. And so the the rumor and I'll say it was a rumor because this is what they tried to push, but it's really not. The truth is that they tried to say it was a liquidity issue and that they had so many people buying on margin that when it came time to explode like this and they actually went to go find the shares, they couldn't. And then it became this thing where Robinhood needed to pay a couple of billion dollars to keep the trading open. But if that was the case, they would have shut off the buy and the sell. It didn't happen that way. So. It's it turns into something where basically Robin Hood is helping out these couple of hedge funds and market makers Point 72 to Citadel, Melvin Capital. And Melvin Capital, by the way, one of the largest short positions in GameStop, who said under oath that they closed their GameStop positions, just got charges put against them for lying about that. And that case is coming up now.
Killah Cortez: Did they shut off? Do they shut off the buy and the buy button on multiple services or was it just Robinhood?
Stash Konig: No, it was multiple. It was Robinhood. It was Thinkorswim, which is by TD Ameritrade. I think webull had their buybutton turned off for a little bit. The only one that i know for sure because i actually have investments with them and I was invested in GameStop with them was Fidelity. And I think I think interactive brokers and maybe one or two others didn't, but like there was three or four of them that did. And so but you know, what it was, is they were all of those were controlled by the same clearinghouses. So that's.
Killah Cortez: Right. Because Robinhood they're they're they're they're not they don't take a profit and let whatever trades happen. But they're they're about like selling the data. Right. Like they're trying to.
Stash Konig: Here's the thing. Anything. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Anything that's free. Anything that's free, you're the product. So what happens is, yeah, the service might be free for you, but what they're doing is they are selling all of your information to the market makers so they can front run these trades and these market makers. It's called payment for order flow. This is and you want to know what's really interesting. So, you know, like what happened in 2008 with the whole mess up of the markets and housing crash and all of that and, you know, the whole Bernie Madoff thing. Okay. You know who came up with payment for order flow?
Killah Cortez: Who?
Stash Konig: That's Mr. Bear Sterns himself, Bernie Madoff. Really, he was the one who came up with the idea for payment for order flow, which means you have a broke.
Killah Cortez: What does that mean?
Stash Konig: I'm going to. Yes. So payment for order flow means if so, you have these people called the market makers. Right. And the market makers and the clearinghouses are like the highest of the high. They're the ones who oversee all of the trades and they make the market makers basically means they make the trades, they make the numbers. They they're the ones who come up with what a price should be to buy the shares and what a price should be to sell the shares. Then you have brokerages, brokerages. So it goes clearinghouse market maker, brokerages. Brokerages are on the bottom here. Brokerages are the ones who transact our trades and about. And it could be only milliseconds. But it's enough time in these algorithmic computers and these computers that have been set up to act like to trade at these high frequency paces where like it's faster than 0.0001 of a second. Right. So they basically front run these trades with payment for order flow. And what that means is so if I go and I buy a share on Robinhood or Fidelity or any of these places, that information. Well, sorry, I shouldn't say any of these places. There are ones that are that try to be a little bit like less payment for order flow, but everybody at the end of the day is really participating. And so if I go ahead and I buy a share of Apple, right, and that share gets bought at 11:01 a.m. or 11 a.m., let's just say 11 flat and at 11. Am and 000 1 seconds. My trade does not execute on the open market. My trade goes to a market maker and the market maker sees that first. Because in in theory, the reason why it was supposed to be like that is so they could properly keep these trades going and keep the keep the flow of things going properly without things getting convoluted. What it really does is give companies like Citadel and these others who participate in payment for order flow a chance to front run their own trades against what you and I are already trading so they can see if a million shares get bought. Probably multiple seconds before you or I would even know that came through. And they've already made their trade to either go for it or against it to make money on it or against it.
Killah Cortez: Is this automated like with A.I.? How do they do that?
Stash Konig: So, you know, these incredible scientists that these these bio scientists, these incredible minds that go to school and they should be putting their minds to changing diseases and and and the world and climate and things like that and really helping us. Well, what these hedge funds do is they find these incredible minds and computer scientists and all these people, these people who are who are supposed to be pushing our technology forward, and they say, well, you could do that philanthropic thing and be a great person and not get paid as much. But I mean, you still get you'll make money. It's it's not you know, you probably still make six figures or you can maybe make seven figures a year. But how about I give you 60 million to come to my firm and build my computer software so I can be two, 2 milliseconds faster than the next broker?
Killah Cortez: Wow.
Stash Konig: And that's where these companies they bring in these. So for example like and I keep bringing up Citadel because they're like one of the most, you know, big bad wolf guys. And they are actually I mean, they run a it's pretty weird some of the stuff that happens through that company. So they wanted to have a firm in Chicago, but they wanted to be able to have real time from New York, but not just real time in terms of like a one second difference on trade. So what they did is they wanted to have it right away. So they built and you can only imagine how much money this probably took to make. They built their own fiber optics network cable line from New York City to Chicago. But all by themselves, their own private fiber optics line.
Killah Cortez: Wow.
Stash Konig: And they have that way they're able to see the most up to date right on schedule, if not ahead of most people, because they have the most advanced fiber optics network directly into Chicago. I mean, they might even get it faster than some people sitting in New York.
Killah Cortez: So then the AI is then getting the trades and then automatically knows what to do based on the situation.
Stash Konig: For the most part, now what happens and is something like a squeeze. And what have started to happen with GameStop is if these positions are underwater, these computers are meant to de-risk and de- elevate risk, de-escalate risk. And so. When these positions started going so underwater, the computers started to automatically cover. And so instead of or at least automatically started to buy shares in order to cover now whether they actually were used to cover that, I should clarify that we don't because from everything we can tell, the covering happened at a minute scale, if any at all, and then most of these people still have open positions. You know what? So what happened is when people started buying up in these and these short positions started getting low, I mean, deeper and deeper underwater, these computers started to buy shares to start to try and create enough of a pool of shares to cover these shorts. Well, the reason why they stopped the buy button is so they could readjust their algorithmic computers. That's my honest to God Belief is that it wasn't just to stop buying,
Killah Cortez: Right?
Stash Konig: It was because, like I said, if it was to do what they said it was to do, they would have stopped buying and selling. But they continued to let selling happen and no buying. And you know why that is? That's because the computers needed to catch up to the what was actually happening.
Killah Cortez: they needed to roll out version 2.4
Stash Konig: Exactly, man.
Killah Cortez: What would you recommend for someone to start reading, to get into investing or anything like that? Like a starter book or a starter resource?
Stash Konig: You know, that's tough. I personally am not the biggest bookworm when it comes to financial stuff, like you'll have all these people like Oh, go read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and not no disrespect to Robert Kiyosaya or I think his name
Killah Cortez: Robert Kiyosaki
Stash Konig: Kiyosaki, thank you and listen that's not it's not a bad book and it gives you the basic idea of what it is but investing at the end of the day. It's not as complicated as everybody wants to make it out and investing at the end of the day. And the best advice that I ever got in the beginning of my investment start was invest in companies that are staples in your personal life every day. So like for me, I personally and I wear Nike's, let's just say Nike's, you know, I'm a big Nike guy. I like to have I have a pretty big collection of shoes. I'm just always been a fanatic that I play basketball growing up. I like Air Jordans, you know, so I have a pretty solid collection anyways. I know for myself, I know how much I spend on Nike's. And I look around and I see how many other people like Nike's. And so I said, you know, I'll buy some Nike. And I bought Nike. And that investment has turned out very nice long term. I think where. And so I would say there are things to read out there. Absolutely. But I wouldn't go back to investing books. I actually I'll you know, I'll shout out a book. And this is not to get people into Bitcoin or advocate to Bitcoin, but I think it's written really well in terms of the overall history of economics.
Killah Cortez: Mm hmm.
Stash Konig: Is is "Layered Money" by my buddy Nick and Nick Bhatia. It's called Lei. And it's it's this it's it's Bitcoin driven because it's trying to give a use case to where Bitcoin could be used in the future. But it also gives you an incredible history on the financial systems, the Fibonacci's and these people. And so it's something that I think gives a good current look. I think a lot of these old books do not relate to today's markets. I really don't. And maybe I'm, I, maybe I sound stupid for saying that. But you can research a million different ways nowadays. That is not in a book. You can go read prospectuses on companies on the Internet. Now, you know what I mean? You used to have to.
Killah Cortez: Well, there's so much ways you can learn now. Like you can you can learn on YouTube. You can find interviews, podcasts, books. Yeah, there's no one way to do it
Stash Konig: So I instead of just recommending a book, I would say use all the resources available, use, use Google, use podcast, use YouTube, use all of these things. And here's the thing that I try to explain to people the most. If you have a question on something, you can go on Google and type that question in and you in the first probably five results can go through those articles and you can see what relates to each other in those articles and what differs. Now, sometimes there's five articles, they're completely different from each other, and that's when you got to do a little bit deeper research. But for the most part, I'm willing to bet that if you go on and you're like, Hey, I want to learn about call options or just options in general, and you spend enough time instead of just trying to get a quick fix, and instead of reading four or five articles, those articles pick what correlates in those and what makes sense in those and what what matches up. Now, everybody has a little bit of a different way of viewing things, but for the most part, you can pick out the things that are the core values of these strategies, right? And then maybe apply them slightly to your strategy and try it.
Stash Konig: But don't go all in obviously right away. Like, I think there's a lot of people who have this misconception now, especially after like January, seeing a stock go from low to high so quickly and how many of their friends might have made a little money off of it, or even with things like a dogecoin and stuff like that, like, yeah, there are these quick hitters for sure, but in the overall grand scheme of things, your, your biggest goal is to not get rich quick. It's to stay rich for a long time. And so the long I always will choose longevity over a quick hit, of course. And while I may use a quick hit here and there to provide extra capital and to inject into my portfolio, into my portfolio, I'm not looking for those as a daily strategy to become rich like you will go broke before you become rich if you try to do that.
Killah Cortez: Sure.
Stash Konig: So.
Killah Cortez: Yeah, there's no sometimes there are shortcuts, but there's a lot of there's a lot of things that can go wrong if you're constantly, constantly chasing the shortcuts.
Stash Konig: 100 percent
Killah Cortez: How has failure or apparent or apparent failure set you up for later success? Or or do you have like a favorite failure of yours?
Stash Konig: Okay. So. That's a great question because I as I said earlier in response to another question, I grew up playing sports. So I have this very competitive side to me, this side to me that. If I am told I can't do something or if I'm told that I'm going to fail at something, or if I feel like even personally I'm failing at something, I decide right then and there that this is what I'm going to start to focus in on and how am I not going to fail? And not only how am I not going to fail, how am I going to going to now succeed? Turn it into a success? Early on. I can start with my first. Just experience in that I grew up being one of and there's not a braggadocious way like I grew up being one of the best basketball players in my community. You know, going into high school, I had all the parents telling me like, Oh, you're going to be one of the best players. And I get to school in ninth grade and I'm trying out for the basketball team. And I'll never forget this moment. And and I wasn't having my best kind of summer league, but I came to and this is going to be this is a funny story, but it also just tells you how fucking small minded some people are. So I'm in ninth grade. I'm pretty naive at this point. Like in eighth grade, I tried pot once, you know what I mean? Like my friend's older brother.And they were like, he stole a little from his stash. He's like, We're going to try. And you know what they did? They put it in a hookah pipe and it gave me more of a headache than it did because I got more hookah than fuck it and I don't even think I got weed, you know what I mean? It's just like. So I was naive to to smoke in drugs or any of that, you know, just I was just naive. Ninth grader. So I go swimming at my buddy's house. He had a pool and we're swimming and it was heavily chlorinated. And so my eyes are red. And I go in to practice and my coach pulls me aside and he's like, Hey, Eric. What's going on, man? Your eyes are. Your eyes are really red. You're smoking weed? He's like, you know, I know. You just don't. You seem a little off. And I didn't.... See the craziest thing. I was completely not off. Like, if anything, I was having one of my better practices and he was like, Yeah, he's just he's like, I just want you to know, like, he's like, you know, that's not acceptable on this team. And I was like, I went swimming at a friend's house, man. Like, I swear on my life, like, I'm trying to swear up and down. Like, he just didn't believe me.
Killah Cortez: Yeah.
Stash Konig: And I didn't make the basketball team in ninth grade. I got cut that summer.
Killah Cortez: Wow. And and you think it was because of that?
Stash Konig: I think it was heavily related to that. And I also think it was because and I can be honest with you, I know for a fact that there is two parents on the team and one of those parents had a son that was competing for the same spot as me, who magically donated the uniforms to the team and the apparel for the for the for the for the freshman through varsity teams. And another one we know for sure, because we had another friend who wasn't even on the basketball team. His mother worked for the PFC or the parent faculty like the teachers like where they where the where the parents donate to the school, basically. And and the other kid, one of the other two kids had a parent donate, I believe, $10,000 to the sports program.
Killah Cortez: Holy Crap
Stash Konig: Yeah. Like there was a really weird vibe that year. So then I got motivated as fuck and I said, Fuck all that. This is not how I'm not going out like that. And I came back the next year and I was the starting captain on the team and I led the team in scoring. And then you know what I did? I said, Fuck you, I don't wanna play for your team anymore. I proved myself and I left and that's when I started to get into music. And I'll never forget to this day, the coach was always one of these like hard asses who like, even as well as I did, he was like, you know, yeah, I don't know if you're going to start next year.
Stash Konig: And I said, Well, you know what? I was just the starting captain on the team after you kicked me off for no apparent reason. Like I literally was an I was a punk ass kid. Like, I just I was so fed up at that point because and at that point, I also knew I wasn't going to be in the NBA, like I'm in high school trying to enjoy my experience and like being on the basketball team. I always enjoy basketball as a competitive motherfucker, don't get me wrong. But like, was was I realistically, like a top prospect at a prep school going to go to it? No, I wasn't. So like, I was like, all right, maybe, you know, I've proven to myself I can do it, but I don't want to be here anymore. It doesn't make me happy. It almost it turned the sport that I love to play and and appreciate it and to something that I actually resented.
Killah Cortez: Yeah, totally.
Stash Konig: And so I so that was like the first experience. But then I move forward. I had a couple of DJ gigs early on and I knew what I was doing, but I didn't do my best, you know what I mean? Like I was still a little bit like kind of, you know, just a little green behind the ears.
Killah Cortez: Yeah.
Stash Konig: And. So I could tell it didn't resonate with the crowd, let alone the people who booked me. And it always led me to think like, Hmm, how can I improve? So I went back into the lab, like, you know, just like just into the laboratory, man.
Killah Cortez: Yep.
Stash Konig: And I spent every day for the better part of, like, four months, like, hours on end, just behind the decks, just putting in the hours, just just knowing that shit like the back of my hand to where, like, if somebody was talking to me here, I could still be moving my hands in the other direction and mixing. And it wouldn't, it would just be flawless. And so I went back about a year and a half later to an event that was run by the same promoter and had my best show to that date. And it was the look on his face to tell you when it's like. Yeah. Maybe I did underestimate you. Or maybe you're better than I thought you were. And so then that ended up leading to more bookings and things like that.
Killah Cortez: Yep
Stash Konig: And so that was one of those moments. It's happened several times with like remixes and mixes and stuff. You'll send it.
Killah Cortez: In mean music is just all failures.
Stash Konig: That's the thing I feel like I fail on every project at least once, because, like,
Killah Cortez: If you're not failing you're doing it wrong. You have to be failing.
Stash Konig: Who was it? I think I think it was schoolboy Q He said the best thing I ever heard one time, and it was like he was basically like, what do you what are you fucking afraid of? Like, get out there and go fail. Like, just go fucking fail. Like, get out there, fail. What do you have? Like, if you're not failing, you're not doing. And if you're doing and not failing congrats. You're fucking lations. You're a perfect human being and there's none of those. So we all know that's not the case. Like, if you get out there and fucking fail, fail yourself a couple of times and see how a you could be resilient and b is if you fail, does it give you that motivation to keep going? And if it does, then you might have the hunger and the passion that it takes to really achieve what you want to accomplish. But don't let somebody tell you you suck at something and you just go home and put your tail between your legs.
Killah Cortez: Yeah, well, the thing is, I think we forget that it's okay to suck at something, and we all start sucking like we all can't walk and we fall a million times and then we figure it out. And then onward and onward. And for some reason, at a certain point, we kind of all forget that it's okay to be a beginner, it's okay to fail. Everyone, everyone tends to get really focused on like being too embarrassed. And it's like, you just got to forget that. You got to just start and keep going. If it's something you really want to do, start and keep going. We have a we have a similar story actually for like high school.
Stash Konig: Yeah.
Killah Cortez: Because I did the same thing with football except I wasn't the starting captain, but I yeah, I like I tried out for, for junior varsity football completely the worst player on the team. I didn't even want to play football. I didn't know. I didn't know the positions. I just wanted to prove that I could do it. Like, it was like a total mental thing. And yeah, ninth grade try it out, didn't make the team and I was like, No, I'm going to do this. So I worked out like all summer, came back next year, made me the varsity team. Hell yeah, didn't play. My nickname was left out. And and I remember though like I remember we were at the, the summer like brunch, whatever banquet and the coach was like, they gave me the most improved player award,
Stash Konig: Dude. Hell yeah.
Killah Cortez: And they were like, they were like, next year we're hoping to turn, turn this guy into our starting linebacker. We're going to feed him shit and nails all summer, you know? Cortez, come up here, whatever. So I accept the thing. But in the back of my head, I had already started playing music. I already started. I already knew I was going to quit.
Stash Konig: the music thing, man, that happened. That's the little thing.
Killah Cortez: I remember. Like, I remember I went and I told the I told the coach, like, next the next week I was like, Yeah, coach, I'm quitting the team, you know? And he's all right. He got he got upset, dude, that whole year, senior year, any time I ever saw him in the hallway, he wouldn't even acknowledge my existence.
Stash Konig: Because you're a failure to the system bro. Fuck you, coach. Dude, you know, one, one last little note. It's like, so our coach was a dick. Like, I mean, and most coaches are dicks, but like, all right, I'm not going to say his name, right? But like, our coach was he. So we had practice after school when the first year I was there. But then we we did pretty well as a program. We made it to like the CIF championship or whatever. So then the following year he changed it to zero period practice. Now that means before first period at 7:00 AM.
Killah Cortez: As a practice before hand.
Stash Konig: We would wake up and have practice at five in the morning,
Killah Cortez: Oh.
Stash Konig: to 6:30am and then have 30 minutes to change, eat, breakfast, shower, all this. First off, you don't fucking shower. And these showers were fucked like dude, it was, it was gnarly. They didn't they they was gross. And I'm not being prissy about like I'm talking like they were not good like this. This shit was not clean. And so you feel all fucking grimy even after taking a shower in those showers. And you have to go to school for the rest of the day after that. But what really happened is so he was always just extremely like just rude and just crazy on people, even if you're doing good. He wouldn't. And so years later, I ended up going to like a charity basketball game. And like I was, I was invited as as stache, you know, like I was like, oh, yeah, hell yeah. And he was there and he sees me and he goes, Hey, I just want to come up and apologize to you. I went through anger management counseling and a lot of therapy, and I definitely didn't didn't treat you and some of your other teammates the way that you should be treated. And I said, well, I appreciate you. And I didn't say this to him. And in my mind, I'm just like, Yeah, thanks for telling me that. After I, you know, when I was a teen going through fucking trauma and developing and you're literally sitting here telling me I'm not shit. And like that, you cut me out, you know? And now you're telling me this. I appreciate the gesture, but kindly go fuck yourself because it's like you shouldn't have been around kids in the first place if that was the case. You know what I mean?
Killah Cortez: That's so sketchy, man. I mean, I don't have kids, but yeah, you know, I think back to to my teachers and then I just I mean, teachers have a hard job, respect to the teachers, but absolutely, there's definitely a lot of people who shouldn't be teachers,
Stash Konig: 100%.There's a lot of people who teach by way of thinking that there's like nothing else out there for them. It's almost like a last resort. And so if it's already your last resort and then you have to deal with kids who require attention and a certain type of nurturing and that you're not meant for that job.
Killah Cortez: Yeah,
Stash Konig: But.
Killah Cortez: And I mean, that's such obviously a such an impressionable age, you know.
Stash Konig: Oh, I was pissed for a while. It definitely rubbed me the wrong way and it had a negative effect on me for a while. But, you know, at the same time, like, thankfully, I found music and it was my outlet. It was my way of getting getting through those tough times because, yeah, it did hurt. It did feel like shit when I was, you know, cut initially. And then also it didn't feel, you know, I knew I didn't want to be there and be a part of that because of the environment there was. And I proved what I wanted to prove with the whole, you know, the next year when I was cap or whatever. But there was still that void of missing something I had done growing up all my life and not doing it. And so it was just like a weird, weird time in my life going through high school and and figuring that out. They like step by step, you know?
Killah Cortez: Word
Stash Konig: So interesting, interesting times. But high school, what an interesting moment. in life that seemingly mean so much to you then and now. It's like, dude, but here's the thing. I feel bad for anybody going to high school now, man. Social media, you know, while it can be a vehicle for promotion and things as an artist like I truly think social media is the greatest weapon of mass destruction.
Killah Cortez: It can be.
Stash Konig: I really do. I think it the amount of pressure unnecessarily that it puts on people to keep up and live this certain life and and be this certain person and follow these certain rules. And you have to do these certain videos to fit in this certain algorithm and and the amount of unhappiness that causes people, instead of letting people grow and decide who they actually want to be and who they you know, I think a lot of people, especially now, are going to miss out on maybe who they truly are or should be because they're trying to be somebody else so often. And so I just I'm glad I didn't have it to the full extent. I mean, we still had cell phones and some social media back then, but to a much lesser degree.
Killah Cortez: Yeah.
Stash Konig: So that's one thing that I find kind of just. Freaky about these times.
Killah Cortez: Well, it's funny because, like, it's easy because, you know, I've caught myself, like, looking at it just being like, oh, man, like, you know, what am I doing? Like, I feel so behind. And then I trip, I, like, zoom out and I'm like, No, no, you're good. This is like the front face of their thing. But I guess what I'm really getting at is that like, you know, I'm not in high school thinking that in high school you have no life experience. to like, no, you're like, no, don't worry about it. You know, I totally get that.
Stash Konig: Yeah.
Killah Cortez: If you could put a message on a car bumper sticker that everybody would get, it doesn't. Not an advertisement, but just something that you would like to say to the world. What would you put?
Stash Konig: Social media is the greatest weapon of mass destruction.
Killah Cortez: Word.
Stash Konig: Plain and simple. Just like I was just explaining for those reasons. And there's more. But I mean, plain and simple, I think more people are so caught in that bubble and are so glued to their phones and what everybody else is doing. You know, there's this there's this void of individuality right now. And. Again, while we all can have hopefully an equal playing field in life, nobody, no one individual is like the next. Everybody's got their own story. Everybody has their own feelings. Everybody has their own way of living. But if we all continue down this path, everybody is going to be living in this repetitive world, this, this, this, this, this world where everything lasts 30 seconds to a minute, where the attention span goes away, where you you know, dude, you know, this we were, you know, and we're not even old. We're literally, you know, like I'm I sound probably oh, they're probably thinking I have, like, gray hair and no, dude, I'm like barely 30. Like, I'm just sitting here thinking, you know, we used to listen to an album and be able to sit there and enjoy it from front to back and really be able to pull it apart and understand the story of the album and what went into the making of an album and an artist and where their emotions came from.
Stash Konig: And now. Now you have a 30 second clip on Tick Tock, and it will be a good single. And then you go try to find an album or a story or whatever else happens for that. And they don't have it now. And you know, I do miss that part of the art of of music and I feel like a lot of different. And that's just like an example of there's a there's many different angles of life that that happens. And now where everything has become so short attention spanned and just now, now, now and instant gratification. And I think that takes away from the the true like the natural flow of life. I understand things move at a high pace in a fast paced but yeah.
Killah Cortez: That's that is that is so true. Like the story used to be the album and now it's like, let's create a story on Tik Tok to promote the music.
Stash Konig: Exactly. Like they're not making a song from, you know, well, maybe it is from experience, but the way they are trying to tell this story and while they are maybe still telling a story, but it's strictly like how can we make a Tik Tok video that matches this song? And that'll be the story. But it's a 30 seconds like that doesn't teach you anything about the real song you're hearing the the part of the verse or part of the chorus, you know, and maybe it's catchy, but like, I don't know, I just I miss I do miss that part of music where you get that full story.
Killah Cortez: Sure. I'm with you. I think I'm of the opinion that I like I like any delivery system, like I. I still love the album. I totally get the tick tock method. I It doesn't feel like the preferred method for me, but anyone who does it and does it successfully. Like the more power to you.
Stash Konig: Yeah, totally. Yeah. And I just want to clarify, I'm not knocking on tick tock or Instagram or all these things like they are they are tools to use and you can use them in good ways. But I think the the people who are like solely relying on that to launch their stuff and the quality of stuff that comes out of that, it just to me seems to have a very watered down effect.
Killah Cortez: Word.
Killah Cortez: What advice would you give to anyone who wants to start out, whether it be in music or investing or any of the things that you that you do? What advice would you give?
Stash Konig: Plain and simple. Don't give up. Don't. If it is what you really, truly find to be your passion. And it is something that you are comfortable with struggling in order to get to. Because everything. I don't care if it's a job you went to school for or not. Everything has some sort of struggle or a beginning or learning curve when you first get into it. Don't give up. Don't stop. Now, here's what I will say. Like, this probably doesn't apply as much to investing. Like, because don't stop, don't give up. While if you're putting all your money in, you continuously lose. Please stop and please give up and figure out another way. But I would say with most things that if you let's put it this way, and if you find yourself thinking that you can find a better way to do something, like if you want to be a musician and you hit a speed bump and you're like, Well, I could have been making more money this whole time doing another thing. First off, you're already in the wrong mindset because it should. With music, it can't be about money at first. It just can't. Like you have to know that you're going to at least have to put in and at the minimum a couple of years to put out some records and even just get any sort of traction. Now there are those artists. But here's the thing. These artists that you hear come out and they're like these new artists like Lizzo, for example, that first hit she ever had. You know, their song was three years old before it ever saw the light of day on radio. Oh, yeah. These are the things.
Killah Cortez: Gotye was like that, too, right?
Stash Konig: People don't see that, though, unless you really are paying attention. They're just like, Oh, this lady popped out of nowhere. But like, I forget who it was. They said Behind every overnight success is ten years worth of failure. And it's or just ten years worth of work, you know, and it it is really the case and if not more years than that. But like you, you need to have the the hours and the the working and the writing and whatever it is you need to have those hours down because first off, it takes that amount of time to to truly, in my opinion, figure out what your direction is. I think a lot of people sit down initially and they're like, well, I want to make rock music. And then they start making rock music. It doesn't sound like they want it to make and they're like, Oh, I'll go make pop music or I'll go make jazz music or whatever it is, you know, pick another genre. And that's cool, maybe, but. But you need to allow yourself the time to figure that out. Yeah. And a lot of people don't allow themselves that time. They just like, Oh, this is not happening the way I want it to happen or Oh, this happened, but then you give it and turn it in to somebody and they're like. That sucks.
Killah Cortez: You know, I see two things. You bring up a good point because I was actually thinking about this the other day that I see two things. I see what you're talking about, where people will start, and then if it doesn't take off right away, they they dip. They're like, all right, I'm not going to do that. That's not meant for me. The other one that I see, which I think takes some experience, is. They have to stick with it. They they they start something and they keep going, but they become rigid in approach and they don't look for other angles to to adjust. And like I heard this great story, I hear this from well, I heard this great story about the Apollo, the Apollo missions to the moon. And basically the way they laid it out was that the gyroscopes on the rocket, the computer was so primitive that they didn't really have like a target in mind. And the way the way it worked was that the rocket was actually auto adjusting the entire way. It was never just flying in a straight line the entire time. It would just like slightly adjust. And, and they calculated that the actual amount of time that it was on target was about like 6%. But it's because it kept auto adjusting. That's how it eventually got there. And I think like we're kind of like that, like we were going to drift off target and we just got auto adjust a little bit like, all right, I'm going to try this new angle here. It's still going to the same goal.
Stash Konig: Exactly. The overall target is the same. But yeah, there's 100 different ways to get there. I completely agree with. That's a great point. That's a great point. And yeah, it well, I mean, if you just want to broaden it, life is a constant game of adjustments every single day. You're adjusting something to make life work or I mean, if you're not, then congratulations. But like, honestly, every day is, is some sort of adjustment or some sort of I don't want to say sacrifice, but, you know, some sort of something some move you're making in order to continue the comfort of your your life or to continue the path that you want to be on. And yeah, absolutely. I think constantly adjusting, though, is just the nature of the game, because sound is constantly evolving musically for sure. Specifically, like in the music business, you have another hit sound, you know, every few months, even almost, you know. So I think, yeah, constantly figuring out how to stay fresh, you know, those types of things. Sure, you can stick in one genre forever, but like you got to at least spice it up a little bit.
Killah Cortez: Hell Yeah. Stash. Let the people know where they can find you.
Stash Konig: All right? You can find me on all socials, Instagram, Twitter, all that at Stash Konig. Stash Konig on Twitch at Stash Konig. Yeah, pretty much every social media, discord, stash konig. So come holl at your, boy, I'd love to have you. And I hope to see you soon.
Killah Cortez: Yeah, well, for everybody, for the listeners, we're going to have the show notes in the bottom with all those links. Stash, thank you so much for coming on, bro. Congratulations to both you and me for getting this song out, man.
Stash Konig: Hell yeah, man.
Killah Cortez: And we'll talk to you soon.
Stash Konig: Thank you so much for having me. Big money. Appreciate you.
Killah Cortez: Adios
Stash Konig: later.
Killah Cortez: Thank you so much for listening to Episode 3 of the Killah Cortez Show. Thank you to Stash for being so awesome man and can't wait to do more with you, brother. If you like what you heard, give us five stars on Spotify or give us a like on YouTube or share it with a friend. Anyways, you can find the show transcripts and links and links to my music and whatever else I got at www.thekillahcortezshow.com You could also go to www.killahcortez.com and yeah, they both work. So anyways, thank you guys for listening. You all have a great one. Enjoy the music.