Ep. 23 | Going Pro: Ashley Cooke

Three. I know, right?

I know. Like, yeah, let's go.

Hey, what's up guys? It's Tommy. This is the lead fast podcast. This is another edition of Going Pro. We have a special guest with us. I'm going to hit my microphone 10 times. We have a special guest with us today. We are back in our like kind of second home city of Nashville, Tennessee with the one and only Ashley Cook. Watch this. Oh, you can't hear it. You're giving cheers. We're cheering for you.

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me, Tommy. Appreciate it.

Yeah. No, this is going to be fun. Daniel. Daniel's not here today because Daniel got sick.

Oh no.

Daniel's sick.

Daniel. So Daniel, a couple of weeks ago got the vid. He got the vid and he got that Rona. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna take these off too. And it put him, it put him in the hospital for like five or six days. He was in critical. It was, it was very scary. It got very, very scary. Very, very quick.

Holy cow.

But he's now at home and resting and just taking some time off.

But Daniel, just don't think about it, you know, you just don't.

You can't.

Yeah. Cuz it's just too much.

You can't think about it. You can catch a death, deathly like flesh eating virus from a gas pump too.

Yeah, exactly.

So you can't, you can't live your life in fear all the time. We try not to, but we're excited that you're here. We've like. This has taken a minute.

I know it has. I, I just suck at texting.

It's not your fault.

But like I never responded.

Things for you have like in the last like eight months have like done some things. So we'll let everybody know who you are. So I discovered you on TikTok of all places was like, oh, this is a great cover of this song. And I saw some things, I was like, wow, she's really talented. And then I realized that like you're not just somebody on like you legit had hundreds of thousands of people on TikTok and it was very quick and insta and so it was like, you know what? She's super interesting. That'd be great for going pro. So I'll tell you what we do. So going pro is a series we do. I have the thought that every professional has the same mindset. Whether you play football or you're like a CEO at a major company. Every professional person that's been successful they all go about their life the same way. The essence of what makes them important or makes them special to the world is different in each person. But it takes the same things to draw that out of them. So it takes the same work ethic, it takes the same creativity. It takes the same. All those things. And so we have been interviewing our favorite professionals across the board. So we had Brett Lockett, who won a couple Super Bowls with the Patriots, and Zach Godley, who's a starting pitcher for the Red Sox. And coach Danny Ford, who won a national championship with the Tigers. And we've had a bunch of people, but you are our first musician that we've had. We're starting to move into the arts. We just did this three part series with Travis Alston here in Nashville.

Awesome.

And talked about fashion and how he thinks about business. And so we're gonna dive into kind of all those things. And then I'm gonna beg you to play music later.

I can do that.

All right, cool.

My voice is a little gone from some shows, but I'll do it.

Awesome. So back us up because you're like six minutes old.

Like, it's crazy.

Because I'm 40 and you're 23. All right, so you're a baby.

But I feel so old, though. I feel like such an old soul. It's crazy. I feel like I've been. I mean, I've been in music since I was like 10.

You're like a crazy cat lady.

Yeah, something like that. I mean, more like a dog lady, but. Okay, we'll do it. But I've been in music since I was 10, so it feels like I've been.

So this is. Yeah, you've been doing it.

Yeah. Which has been cool because the whole, you know, TikTok social media thing blew up more. So the last like six months or so. I mean, I've only been on TikTok for like, gosh, like seven months. It's like pretty new, so it's cool. Cause a lot of people now are reaching out and, you know, getting to kind of know my name a little bit around the town. But I've been here for so long, so it feels like I'm 80.

So. Singing since you were 8 or 10, but that wasn't here, right? You lived in LA for a long minute.

Yeah, yeah. I've kind of grown up all over the country. I was born in Wisconsin and then I moved to California and then to South Florida.

You have a very Midwest vibe.

Really?

Yeah.

I don't have the accent, though.

No, but you have a very Midwest, down to earth vibe.

I like it. I appreciate it. Then I moved to Nashville officially when I was 18, but I spent some time on and off here. I was in a duo with my sister for a long time. We spent some time in Nashville working with some people when I was, like, 13. So I've been here on and off. I say that I've been here for about 10 years, but officially, I've been here since I was 18.

Okay, so you told me a story about.

My gosh, I've told you lots of stories. Now I'm scared.

No, the good story about doing the Belmont Showcase. And I just think that's so, like, because you weren't doing music, you weren't pursuing music, you were going a different path. You had chosen something different.

Yeah. So I was studying communication at Belmont, so nothing to do with music whatsoever. I've been in music since I was a kid, but my sister and I were in the duo and went to college and kind of were just, like, figuring our stuff out, figuring out what we wanted to do with our lives. And I was like, man, senior year's rolling around. Do I want to do communication? Do I want to go into, like, pr? Do I want to do marketing? Go to law school? I had. So, I mean, obviously, senior year of college, you're the world's your oyster. You just can do whatever you want to do. And I applied for the Belmont Showcase on a whim, which, if you don't know what Belmont Showcase is, it's this big thing that Belmont puts on every year. Previous winners are, like, fgl, Brad Paisley, Josh Turner, who introduced me at the Showcase. Cool.

That's cool. Yeah.

So applied for it on a whim, having no idea if I was even gonna get in. And I think I was, like, one of the only non music majors to compete that year in Country Showcase 2. And so it was myself, Patrick Murphy, who now I signed over to Sony atv, Alyssa Newton, who was on Songland, and Tiger Lily is also in the 615 house. I think we'll talk about later. But, yeah, so I applied on a whim, got in, and ended up winning it, which was crazy. And so from that moment forward, I remember praying before I'm Christian, and I remember praying before the Country Showcase, just thinking like, God, whatever you want me to do, just open the doors and I'll walk through them. If you don't want them to be open, then hold them tight. And I won the showcase, and doors just sort of flying open after that. And for about that was about a year and a half ago, so not even that much time.

So a year and a half ago you win the Belmont Showcase and like you said, doors start flying open. What does that, what does that look like on a daily basis though? Like, so, like, because I think people think I'm going to come to Nashville and there's a joke that Nashville's a ten year town and it definitely is. You've been here ten years now happen. So that maybe that holds true. But I always think of that it's like it's a 10 year town. You've been here 10 years and you haven't done it, then leave like that. You're probably not cut out for this, but I think a lot of people, it could be a two year town if you did 10 years worth of work. It takes 10 years for you to learn the ropes and do the things and make the relationships happen so that you can have access to the opportunity. But that happened like in a moment for you. So then what does the day to day change to? Like, what does that look like now for you?

It's a great question. I mean, over the last year it's looked different for sure. Also with the pandemic that we've been entering into or been in, I guess now. So when I first graduated, it was a lot of going out to bars late at night and just talking to people and getting to know everybody and playing the writers rounds with two people sitting in the crowd. And you really have to kind of pay your dues, which I also did in the duo and I toured around the country as a kid and. But it really is just they say the, the catchphrase be present to win in Nashville is so important.

Right?

Because if you're not here and you're not around these people, they don't really care. It's kind of, you know, become friends with people before you work with them.

Can't go from ghost to famous.

Exactly. You have to. You know, some people that skyrocket overnight, people in Nashville, like, who were they? What's. And then they don't want to help them really because they don't know them. So it's more so like become friends with people that you want to work with and just like you and I became friends before this podcast, like, you just gotta become friends with people to really want to work with them.

It's definitely an in crowd town. Like as big as Nashville is, it's. It's incredible to me how many people just know each other. So like it is Just like you're two steps away from anyone that you really want to meet. If you'll just show up and be like, serve. Like we always talk about serving first and selling second.

Like, so true.

And so like, how do we just serve people? And that's how we even. That's how you and I met, because of Chase. Because we were helping build uncut experience. Yeah, sorry. If you're hearing that online, we're in a very cool space. It's a rehearsal space here, but it is in a parking garage. And so every time a large car goes over us, it sounds like a rocket ship is taking off above us.

But you know, I mean, you're right. It's. That's one of the hardest things about Nashville is so distracting. It is such an in crowd town. And so if you're not, you don't have your. They call it your camp if you don't have your camp. It's really tough to get in one when you're a newer artist, a newer writer in town. So people keep asking me now, like, I know something but like, what do I do if I'm a new artist coming to Nashville? And I'm like, biggest piece of advice is just make a bunch of friends. Don't be like, hey, let's write sometime right off the bat. Because people get really turned off by it. It's what we do for a living. It's our job. Who you're around is really important when it comes to Nashville and who you associate yourself with. So people are hesitant to write with you or play with you because then you're immediately associated together. So it's very much like the reason it's a 10 year town is because people want to get to know you. They want to vet you out. Anybody can be a nice person for six months. So.

Well, I mean, so your day to day is, I'm sure, pretty incredible at this point. But like it wasn't six months ago. I mean like eight months ago whenever you like you were still in Florida. Like you were in Florida at your parents house.

Yeah.

Quarantined up.

Yeah. So when I first graduated again, it was a lot of like going to bars, playing shows around town, just kind of meeting people and lots of days I was like, what am I doing? You know, like I'm not getting paid for these shows. Because in Nashville you really don't get paid. You really do it for the exposure and the experience. So I was like, what am I doing with my life? Like how do I break past this certain stage and I think everybody struggles with that coming to Nashville. But then I went quarantined in Florida, got on TikTok. It was crazy how people that I used to talk to and be friends with back before the TikTok thing happened, you know, now they're like, oh, my gosh, hey. Because they saw me on TikTok.

Right? Right.

And I'm like, you've known me for, you know, a year now, but now you really pay attention because I'm on TikTok, which is amazing. And not to, like, you know, shit on. Sorry to curse, but like, you know what I mean? Like, not to, like, hate on the TikTok thing, but it's just like, no.

I've been at this for a minute.

Yeah, exactly. And so now it's like, wake up, make a video. Make another video. Make another video. And, you know, it's just hanging. I have a team now that it's amazing that I met through the TikTok thing. And it's just a lot of, like, self motivating and planning out your days to a T. You know, Like, I literally, in my calendar, have, like, wake up, make breakfast, sit down for a minute, get off my phone, and just like, think about ideas and brainstorm. And then it's make a video. And then it's, you know, come record a really cool podcast with Tommy. And then it's like, you know, go play a show. Like, tonight I'm playing a show. So it's definitely changed over the last couple months, but in a great way. Just a lot this year.

So I want to hear the TikTok story. I want them to hear the TikTok story. I know the TikTok story. You've told it to me. But I want them to hear that happened because something important. You said that you don't necessarily want to be known as the TikTok girl. I mean, you've been doing this for a while, but life and how impactful you are in life and a lot of the opportunities that you get are about the level of influence that you have. And you've obviously gotten a lot more opportunities now on this side. Your TikTok didn't make you more talented. You always had the stuff to be an incredible like. Like. And just so you know, I geek out a little bit for everybody watching because I'm a fan. Like, so this is fun for me because I'm a fan. Like a real. Like, I told people, like, I'm gonna sound really terrible doing this interview because I'm fanboy. But your level of Influence has changed. Like it changes how you have to deal with labels now and how for sure. So, so take everybody back because there are a billion 13 year old little girls who want to be TikTok famous right now. But you didn't plan to be TikTok to famous.

Nobody does. I think. You know, it's funny because even talking to people over at TikTok, nobody understands the virality of it. And I think that's the beauty of it. That's what's so addicting about it and fun is because you could post a video of, you know, your cat making a weird noise and it gets 13 million views and nobody can anticipate that. So the first video for me that went viral, I posted having zero expectation of what it was gonna do. It's my first real TikTok video. One of this cute guy in my hometown told me to post it and I did. And I literally just came inside one day from the pool when I was quarantining in Florida with braids in my hair, no makeup on, like totally zero effort. Recorded two versions of it, posted it and it got. Now it's at like 2.4 million views. It was like an overnight. It was crazy. It was just absolutely nuts.

2.4 million views.

Yeah. And that's what it's at now. It's just. I remember coming, I recorded it in our guest room in Florida and I remember like running into the kitchen and being like to my sister, I was like, jen, I think this just got like 20,000 views in like 20 minutes. And she was like, what? What even is this app? She didn't even have TikTok downloaded. I was like, it's TikTok. Like, I don't know, I'm bored in quarantine. Like I just did it for fun and I caught the bug and I had nothing else to do in quarantine. So I just made a bunch of videos every single day. And just that's the trick to it is consistency. It's just consistency and always brainstorming new ideas because people get bored of the same thing. So like you can't just post the same thing over and over again. Or just different versions of. You have to be creative and do new things.

So you're. So you have TikTok and then you have Instagram 30.

Instagram.

Yeah. On the gram, Twitter, whatever. But then you've like so on Spotify though, you have this great cover of this Morgan Wallen hit that's got like a quarter of a million plays.

Yeah.

Now was that before like did you put that on TikTok and then go record it and put it on Spotify or was that already out on Spotify and like you had already recorded it and said I'm gonna go on TikTok too.

Yeah. So that was totally TikTok first over to Spotify, which is pretty cool because I just actually wrote with Craig Wiseman who's the guy that wrote Chasing you. So it's like crazy full circle how things have come together. But I posted a video in my parents like empty bathroom upstairs of Chasing you. It was just like a reverb y kind of version of it and it blew up. Got like. I think it was like over 700,000 views which is, I mean to me like millions is a big. But like I'm like getting spoiled with it cuz I'm like 700, that's a pretty big number.

That's huge. Yeah. If anybody wants to give me 700,000 views on this podcast, get it, I'll.

Make a video, let's do it. But yeah, so I put that video out and it blew up. Everybody asking for a version of Chase and you'd. And so I did it with my friend Matt Morrissey and we just. It was like a demo kind of version of it and just didn't really think much of it. I put it out like pretty much overnight. Like it was like just upload it onto all the different systems and just get it on through and it's. It like I think almost 400,000 streams right now with zero playlisting. That's all from TikTok. Like all of it's just conversion from TikTok over to Spotify. It's my. It's my most streamed song. I'm like, what, what's.

Because not everyone's heard jealous of this guy yet. So we'll get into that in a second. But that's incredible to me because I think the power of what you can do on TikTok is that you can vet songs before you go through the expense of recording them.

Which is kind of scary though because if you. So I mean obviously you know the process between writing a song and like recording it and then mastering it and then putting it on the. All the, you know, all the, all the stuff. If you don't know it takes a long time to record a song and then like from the recording process to. Or the recording date to actually releasing the song, it's like probably like a month. It's like a month and a half minimum. It's like you know, five, six weeks, probably more than that, because of the recording and the mastering and all that. So it's kind of scary because if you put out a song on TikTok, just like, hey, you know, wrote this new song blank, and people love it. It'll get old in a week on TikTok, right?

Yeah.

People ask for it still, but, like, you have to, like, back it up quick. So if you post a video and people love it, it's like, if it.

Blows up, you've got to be in the studio recording yes.

Day, which is awesome. I mean, that's a great problem to have. You know, people want your music, but it's just. It is. It is stressful because you're like, oh, no. Like, I don't know what to do. I don't have this on recorded. So.

But it's. So you did something similar. Like, I mean, you were already. You had to have already been planning on recording Jealous of the Sky. It'd be silly not to. You had to have known, like, I just wrote a smash, right, like this. So you didn't.

No idea.

Like, no idea.

No clue. Yeah. So little backstory on my song Jealous of the Sky. My best friend passed away from cancer when I was 18. His name was Adam. He was an amazing human. And I've been writing songs my whole Life. And from 18 to now, 23, I hadn't written a song about it because I just really couldn't get past that, like, mental block. And then this past July, I sat down with my old friend Bridget Tatum, who also knew Adam, and we wrote that song, and I was writing it just like a diary entry, just like, something to have for me to sing whenever I feel like I want to express those emotions. And then I showed my team, and they were like, this is the next single. This is it. This is the first single. This is my first song to go out fully produced. So I really had no idea that it was going to be that song. And that's what's crazy is people always ask, like, do you know when you write the song? And most people do, but I had no idea, and I have a lot of new music coming soon that I did know that, like, this is going to be the one. But Jealous of the sky was, like, just like a journal entry put to music and seeing how many people reacted to it and responded to it. And it wasn't like a I love this song way. It was like, I need this song. This song is exactly how I felt when I lost so and so or went through that emotion. And so I was like, well, let's put it out. Let's do it.

And I think what you said is what people are responding. Like, I needed this song.

Yeah.

Like somebody. Because it's. And if you go listen to it, just stop this podcast. Go listen to it, come back, we'll pick up the conversation. But the song is cool because it's not like, there's some angst and anger in that song. Like, you're a little upset that, you know, like, jealousy. You can't say you're jealous of this guy and not feel anger. Of course, to some degree.

That's what's cool is, you know, the acoustic version that we originally, obviously wrote it to, it's an angry song. Like, I'm, like, pissed off. I'm like, yo, you took my friend. Like, you took my person. Like, I'm jealous of you because you have him now. But then the way that we recorded it was a little more, like, uplifting because I was like, this is a little. Little aggressive. I was like, I don't know if I want to put this out, but I think it was. It was captured perfectly. Matt Dragostrom produced that, who did, like, all of FGL stuff. So he's amazing. But, yeah, I just took a different take on it.

It's so good. It really is such a good, good tune. I like a lot of the stuff that. So I'm fortunate enough that I've been around Ashley that heard some other songs, and so that I'm excited about the album coming out. It's. Do you know, like, you've got, like, number one after number one in this album? Like, do you feel that with the album coming out?

Oh, I mean, I hope it's one of those things that I had to kind of sit down with myself and be like, yo, would you want to hear these songs on the radio? Because I think for a long time, every artist has the mentality of, like, you know, oh, what's the radio gonna love? And what's, you know, what's the demographic gonna love? And all this. But it's like, in reality, like, they'll love what you love, so just do what you love. And, you know, if they don't like it, then they don't like you. That's whatever. And so, I mean, I have three songs that I just recorded with Jimmy Robbins. Do you know who that is? Oh, yeah, he's amazing. He did, like, he just won CMA so Of the Year with the Bones. Marin Morris, he wrote it and produced that. So we just recorded three new songs, and they're all freaking cool.

That's awesome. So our buddy, you know, Cameron Marlow just put out his ep and the last time I heard an album, and it's just like, I think five songs.

Yeah.

But, like, four of the fives are number ones. Like, the. I was driving up here, listening to it for the first time, and I remembered thinking, like, the last time I heard an album that had. It was like, every song was a smash. Was Rope in the Wind. Like back in middle school when Garth dropped Rope in the Wind. And it was like, every song on here is killer. I did. Like, I could just look, you know, we go drive and throw a CD in back in the day. Those are round. They were round. CDs. Were trying to explain to you.

I know what CDs are. Not that young, so maybe, like, records. It's a little bit past my.

My days, but CDs, I had those growing up, but. So we would drive and just put a cd and you didn't have to hit skip because everything was good. Cameron albums like that. Cameron is. Cameron just dropped that album. And it's so good to listen to it, but I feel like. So I always. So I'm super curious, like, is. You know, your. Is Ashley's album gonna be like, put it in, hit play and leave it alone.

I'm gonna hope. I think I'm probably gonna do singles, like, single after single for this first. Because honestly, Jealous of the sky was the first song that I put out that was fully produced, so it's still pretty new, like.

And 50,000 streams in five days or something like that.

It was 100,000 streams in a month, which was crazy. So it was. Thank you. If you listen to. Was really, really cool to see. And, like, Spotify picked it up with, like, wow, the country. And honestly, I really wasn't expecting a whole lot with it, to be completely honest. Like, just because it was such an emotional song. And it was more of, like, a personal thing for people to get to know me as me and my stories and my voice and, you know, Adam was a huge part of my life, and I have a tattoo for him and all of that, so I really didn't expect much. I just wanted to put something out that was so raw and real and true to me, but it really has been doing great. So that's awesome.

So I want to talk about the future. Yeah.

Hit me.

Yeah.

Scariest thing in the entire world. I'm, like, such an overthinker with the future.

Well, I Mean, so I sort of live there. That's like, that's my job. I live in. I'm a futurist. I live in the future. And I try to reverse every engineer, every outcome back to where we are now and then with our businesses. This is my 13th business. And so. So with our businesses, that's how we function. So if I can. If I can go where we want to be in my mind and reverse engineer it back to where we are. Oh, we can do this. We can. Yeah, this will work. So. But the music industry, I don't feel like you could ever do that. I could never be a part of this because it just wouldn't, personality wise. Yeah, it wouldn't work for me because you can't reverse engineer taste the next album, you know, that sophomore album everybody talks about. Like, so what do you do to, like, guard against, like, to future proof your career?

That's honestly the hardest and the most fun part of the music industry because you can't control what people are gonna think of your music. You just can't. And so that's why I just kind of love to think on the fly, which my team hates, because they're like, we have to plan. And I'm like, no, just let's see what people think of this. But I mean, I have goals. Like, I, you know, I want to be on the road, I want to tour, I want to. I want to play arenas. I mean, that's every artist, and not every artist, but most artists goals. But it is really tough to plan ahead because you really cannot tell if people are gonna react like, my favorite song on the EP or that, you know, the next three songs that I'm putting out might not be the best song. And then that's the song I have to go do a lot more with.

And sing a million times, which, I.

Mean, hey, I'm cool. Anyways, it is what it is. But, you know, it's tough. It's really, really tough to plan ahead. You just have to have goals and roll with it. But, I mean, I studied communication and marketing in school, so, like, my brain's really wired towards, like, the business plan of action and the goals and the whatever, but you just have to kind of give it to God and smile on.

But I think that's gonna be okay. So I think that's where you win, though. I think that's where the future proofing is, is because there are a lot of people here where the music's their main. That's where their brain is, and they don't get to be naturally gifted at marketing and whatever and you get to have your brain in the execution of ideas because you're naturally a good artist.

Thank you.

And other people have to work at the be a good artist part.

Thank you so much.

That really means, I mean, I've heard people in rounds this week that needed to work at being the good artist part, but you know, they're just growing.

They'Re just, you know, finding their path.

But that's that ten year town thing. Like, that's the. Gary Vaynerchuk. Do you know who that is? Gary Vayner. He's this like world famous entrepreneur and he gives a lot of advice and he cusses all the time. So that's like you either love him or you hate him because, hey, get your shit together. Like, that's his thing.

I'm like, yes, sir.

But he's, he's so funny. I mean, he talks about empathy. Like, he's a great dude, but one of the things he talks about is like just showing up every day. Like you've, like. And that's the. I feel like in this industry specifically, you've got to show up every day. So like, so how often now that we're not, you're not on the road, you can't tour. Like, what are you doing every day?

What are you doing every day? It's quarantine, man. I mean, it was tough. I mean, obviously it changes daily, but a big part of it is just sitting with myself and having ideas because, like, if you don't create content online for like a week, then you're your last week's news. Like you have to really be on top of it. So a lot of it is writing. I write a lot via Zoom or in person. Pretty much every day I'm writing and it's thinking of ideas for TikToks and it's talking with my team and it's, you know, writing on my own and it's honestly just sitting and like reading and doing what I need to be doing because if I don't have my mind there, then I won't be able to function properly. So it's, it's a lot of. I mean, it's busy, a busy time. I won't lie. It's a very, very busy time. But it's, it's a really good time.

So, yeah, you're hard to track down. Like not the texting part, like the, like it was the scheduling. Like it was like, I've got to write and then I've got this, and then I've got that. And I was like, man, when would you tour if you could?

I mean, you work around it. I feel like, you know, with music non Covid, there's. There's seasons, there's touring season, there's writing season, there's recording season. Like, everybody has, like, their. Their process down pat. I'm still figuring mine out. I mean, you know, I did come to this town so long ago where I feel like I dug in and I kind of got used to the grind of, like. Because also, people don't realize that if you're a songwriter for a living, every single day, you have to come up with a new idea and be creative, and there's no promises. You're gonna get in a room and you're gonna vibe well with that person. So you have to, like, you just said, show up every day. Like, show up mentally every day. You can't just come in and clock in and, you know, do your work from nine to five. Like, you literally have to, like, get in that room, dig in, talk to somebody, connect with them, be emotionally there, spend six hours writing a song, seven hours, eight hours, whatever it might be, because you have to finish that song with that person and fight for the song. So it's. I mean, it's exhausting, but it's. It's fun. It's just a different career, and people don't realize that it is emotionally taxing at times.

It's hard.

Yeah, for sure.

So there's the music that Ashley does, and then there's six, one five house. And so I do want to talk about that because that's. That's important because, you know, we talked about influence earlier. That's a co op of influence. That's. That really. That's what that is. And there is, you know, nationwide, this, like, onslaught of hype houses where people are actually trying to just, you know, come up with the next viral content. It's all sponsored by, you know, large corporations that are hoping that the next thing goes viral and they're holding a can of Sprite when they do it, like, those types of things. But that's not. Yeah, yeah, but that's not what 615 is. Because, I mean, there's really a bunch of people who were super, super talented, but were already on their own path, already in their own right, full of, like, had influence, had hundreds of thousands of people following them. So where did 615 house come from? So 615 is the area code in Nashville.

Yeah, that's why People are like, what's the 615 house? I'm like, it's 615 house, and it's. It's the area code in Nashville. So I got on TikTok as we talked about just kind of as, like, something to do during quarantine. And I built a pretty big following on there. And my friend Chris Rudiger, I don't know if you know him, he's another artist here in town. He's great. But we've been friends outside of TikTok forever. And we just started collaborating together on the app with people like Cooper Allen and Priscilla Block and other, you know, country artists here in Nashville that got big on TikTok because there really aren't many. Like, in the beginning of it, there was only, like, a handful of artists in Nashville that were country artists that were big on TikTok. So I was laying on my bed one day, and I was thinking about the Hype House, right? Because if you don't know what the Hype House is, I'm sure you do, because the Hype House is like the OG TikTok house, kind of. But houses date back to, like, YouTube, when YouTube first started, where people would get together and join together their platforms to cross collaborate and help each other out on each other's pages to grow. So I was watching the Hype House, and I was like, these are a bunch of teenagers who are really attractive and they're cool. They have cool personalities, and they're dancing like, you know, but how long is this gonna last? Just. And I love them. They're crushing it. They really are crushing it. And they're amazing people. Not to, like, remotely hate on the Hype House by any means. But I was like, you know what. What is special about the Hype House? Like, what is it? Is it just because they're popular and because they're attractive and because they're fun to watch and they kind of know how to dance and do that, whatever. What is it that they're. That they're capitalizing on? I was like, I think it's just the fact that people like them. Like, people just simply like them as human beings, as they're cool people. So I was like, why don't we start a house where we all. It's all people based out of Nashville that have a product which is music, also themselves, but music and come together and cross collaborate on each other's platforms. Because we all have, you know, over 200,000 followers. So called my friend Chris, and I was like, yo, We've already been collaborating with these people, like, you know, doing drop the mic challenges, which are like, if I have my phone and I sing something that I drop like a hairbrush and then somebody in another video grabs something from the top and starts singing. So it looks like we're all together in one stream of video. I was like, we're already collaborating as it is. Why not create a space where we can all grow on this platform together, you know, talent wise and just followers wise and come together and hang out and like write songs. We all write songs, write songs together. Let's just get a house so we can all come together and do this in Nashville. Because it hasn't been done yet. And Asheville was kind of behind the curve on the TikTok market. And so called Chris, his manager is Jeff Manning over at Red Light and Jeff hopped in on it too. And we all kind of just started brainstorming together. And Chris was like, ash, this is a crazy cool idea. We got to do this. And so we started what is the 615 house? And we pulled together. I think it's 10 people, nine artists. Because one of them is a sister duo and super diverse group of people. Nobody does the same thing. Nobody sounds the same, nobody looks the same. Everybody's very diverse. And we got a mansion here in Nashville that let us use their property to film. And we grew. I think it was, yeah, over over half a million followers in two months. Not even month and a half. It's crazy. Absolutely crazy. So it's been cool.

I love that like you guys were. You have it. What you did was create an online container for all the collaborations.

Yeah, absolutely.

And that's a. That's a completely, you know, different thing that you go looking for right when you're on TikTok. So there are people who really just love all the collaboration stuff. And then there are going to people who are like, oh, but I only want to listen to Ashley. And that gives them opportunity. So you took influence and you multiply it and I. And that is like, that can get reverse engineered into so many different business models.

It's cool.

Outside of TikTok completely, you know, whatever. If you sell, you manufacture linens and now you gotta go find the person who also makes the beds and co opt your influence and package it all together and be able to sell it in bundles.

And yeah, it's been cool because I mean, some companies want to do reality show and you know, we have the whole merch and the whole nine yards.

Is there, is there a Keeping up with.

Keeping up with the 615 houses that come out. Check it out.

I know.

We'll see. We've talked to some companies about reality show stuff, but it's also tough because all of us are artists. You know, we're not. Not. I don't want to say just influencers, but we aren't influencers. We. We are. We influence people, but we're our first priorities, our careers and our music. So a reality show where we have, you know, 10 people in a house that all need to be touring and writing songs. Like, we can't really all be together, so it might be tough.

We're talking Kardashians did it. Some of them were in Miami, some of them were in la. You could totally do it. I think that's a win.

There's just so much growth that we have. I mean, it's only three months old now, so. And we already are at, I think, 600,000 followers. It's crazy. So we'll see. I mean, I think it's cool, too, because it's a country music predominant house. Predominant. Is that the right word?

Yeah, I think so.

Whatever, we'll go with it. And so it's like pretty much the same demographic, like, across the board. So, like, you just said, you know, if somebody comes to 615, because I pulled them into the house from my page, and they're like, what they see. Yeah, they're going to. They're going to find everybody else. So it's, you know, nobody's competitive. Nobody is, like, weird about it. We all genuinely want to lift each other up and help each other out. So.

So do you think you basically like the 615 house and you and your crew, like, you pretty much run country TikTok, right?

I don't know about run it. There's. There's some pretty cool artists on there.

No, there's great artists, but I mean, like, you guys have. You probably swing the big hammer.

Yeah. I mean, I'll tell you, it's been weird because do you know any of.

The stats on that? Like, as TikTok said, like, they have.

Said that nothing like us.

That's awesome.

They have said that nothing's like us, which is cool because I think out in la, the Hype House, you know, there's been, like, the Sway House and other houses that have kind of modeled after it, but people have said, like, there's nobody doing what y' all are doing. Which is cool, because, I mean, just like, weird story, side note, I was down in Florida, visiting a friend. Like, a couple months ago. Actually, a couple weeks ago, like, for Halloween. And I was in, like, a house party, which Covid. Didn't happen. I don't know. But somebody. That's fine. There's five people.

It was Halloween. Everybody had a mask on.

Yeah, it's fine. But I was in the kitchen hanging out with a couple girls, and they were like, you look really familiar. I was like, oh, that's interesting. Like, I don't want to be like, is it from TikTok? And so I was like, oh, that's cool. Like, I wonder why I look familiar. Like, I don't live here, like, in Florida. Like, what high school did you go to? And we're talking, and they were like, are you part of that, like, country music? Like, country music hype house thing in Nashville? And I was like, yeah, I started that. And they were like, what? And they were like, some just random girls in Florida. So it's just crazy. People really have, like, seen it and heard of it and know about it, even if they don't, like, really know what the 615 house is. They had, like, seen it. So it's crazy.

It's everywhere.

It's nice. Yeah.

You can't get past it. I'm still. I've got an older kid that's, you know, just turned 12, and he hasn't. He does not do TikTok yet because it's like. It'll just eat his brain. I just feel like there's so much content.

Yeah. I mean, I won't lie. I end up scrolling, and I think, like, I set timers, like, okay, at, you know, 11:23. I'm gonna stop. It's more like 24. Whatever. I'm gonna stop watching TikToks. And it ends up, like, being midnight, and I'm, like, still scrolling because it's just. It's an endless hole.

It's. It's. There's all content, and none of it's more than 60 seconds, and you can just get through it. Yeah, the. So Netflix does the. Are you still watching? Like, are. You know, because they don't have that, though, with TikTok. Well, they have that. Those people that show up go, hey, now you've been scrolling for a long time. And I'm like, don't tell me to live my life.

Go to bed. Go to bed.

You don't know me.

Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, it's also. The app learns you. Did you know that?

No. That's so scary to me.

So it's cool.

I'm like. So I've owned a development company. My first business was software. Like, I love all that. And I get that that's out there. I. Even though I know it and we've used it, I don't want to think about it. I don't want to think about AI.

Have you seen the Netflix document?

Yes.

What is it? What is it called?

Connected?

No, the social.

The social dilemma. Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to throw my. I wanted to throw my phone out of the window. Like, I definitely watch it.

I've never watched it. Don't I need to watch it.

It'll ruin your life. Don't do it.

But then again, I feel like I already know.

No, I don't even want to think about it.

I know if I take my phone right now and I'm like, pillows, pillows, bedding, bedding, bedding. Like, five minutes later, it's gonna be on my Instagram.

It's gonna happen today. I said linens, and I'm gonna start getting linen ads. Yeah, I'm gonna get linen ads.

Well, TikTok lo learns you, though. Like, to the point that, like, it monitors how long you watch a certain video, what you like, what you don't like, how fast you scroll. And it'll give you more of that. Like, it literally learns you. So you just keep scrolling because it wants you to keep scrolling.

That's crazy.

It's nuts.

You know what's weird for me about TikTok is that there's, like, you know, I can follow you and a bunch of other people, and I probably, you know, 50 accounts that I like. That's mine.

Yeah.

I never go to it.

Like, what do you mean?

I only look at the fyp. I only look at the for you page.

That's what I never.

I never go left and look at the stuff that I asked for.

That's what's fascinating, though, about TikTok. People keep asking me, like, do followers even really matter? And I'm like, honestly, I think your following is only as good as your most recent video. Because just like, Instagram has, like, the following page or, like, you're saying, like, you. It's people you follow that you scroll through versus the TikTok page. The for you page. You. You're not going to. It's not guaranteed that your fans and your followers are going to see your videos.

Right?

Right. It's all based on just the random for you page. So you have to. Every single video, be creative and assume that nobody knows who you are.

Everything has to Go big. It has to make the FY the for you page.

And you can't just be like, hey, so like my other video, I said this because that video might get on a for you page and people are like, what are you talking about? Because they didn't see the other video.

That's funny.

So like Instagram, it's like very page centered. Like you don't want to post the same kind of video multiple times because of that. But TikTok, I mean, you could post 10 videos a day and it just will only help you because 10 different audiences are gonna see each video. It's nuts. Absolutely nuts.

I was having. I was. I went into like, like thousand yard stare. You were talking and giving me.

I know I talk fast.

I'm sorry.

I'm like. And then you're this and the four images.

You just got a master class in tick tock. I just don't understand. It's how I. It would be easier for me to go like, well, I'm 40. It's, you know, whatever. I don't understand it. I do understand. It is too. It's too much.

It's a lot. Yeah. And I talk fast too. So I'm over here like, all right.

So will you play some music for us?

Let's do it.

Yeah.

My voice might give out on me.

I'm gonna put my headphones back on real quick so I can make sure. Plus, I look cool. I look cool with headphones on.

I look cool. It's like a radio dj. It's sick. Yeah, I was, I was telling Tommy. I was. Three days ago I recorded those three songs in the studio. And then two days ago I went and played a show in Georgia and died. Cause we drove back the same day, so it was like an 11 hour driving day. So my voice is a little rocky today, but it'll be cool. You hear that?

Okay. Yeah, we're good.

This song is a brand new song I wrote with Nicole Galleon and Jimmy Robbins, who are some incredible writers here in town. I'll just do a verse and chorus.

Well, I'm so over you and you're so over me at least that's what we say but is that what we mean? We say we're feeling better, we're both better off Til we're both feeling nothing we ain't moving on Cause they the opposite of love ain't saying that you hate me Trashing my name Telling all your friends I'm crazy the opposite of love Ain't kissing on somebody downtown at a bar hoping that you spot me. No, it ain't fighting. It ain't crying calling whenever we drink if the opposite of love is not even feeling a thing, we ain't as out of love as we think.

Thank you so much. Yeah, it's about that phrase of, like, the opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference.

Yeah.

So it's like if you hate me, then you still love me.

Yeah. You're not out as a. You feel something.

Exactly.

That's so cool. Well, Ashley Cook, everybody, thanks so much for coming on and lots of success for you and is coming.

Thank you so much.

It's going to be fun to see it. Glad we're friends. I get to, like, celebrate it with you.

Hell, yeah. Always.

Let's go. All right, See you guys next time.

Thank you.