LANDONi

David Adams: Hi guys, thanks for joining us on Elation podcast today. We are here with LANDONi. How you doing, buddy?

LANDONi: I'm doing well, about yourself?

David Adams: Good, good. Good to have you here. We're here to talk about music and journeys and all kinds of things in your life. But let's start from the beginning. Where are you from?

LANDONi: I'm from Norco, Louisiana.

David Adams: Norco? Where is Norco?

LANDONi: Norco is basically the middle of nowhere.

David Adams: Sounds like it.

LANDONi: But it's actually kind of like between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

David Adams: Okay, I feel like I should know it.

LANDONi: Yeah, it stands for New Orleans Refinery Company. And it's right in between Valero and Shell. It's in St. Charles Parish.

David Adams: Gotcha. Little river parish town.

LANDONi: Yeah, small town.

David Adams: Yeah, small town. My childhood in Norco was a lot like Stranger Things. They had a ton of people my age at the time. Rode our bikes everywhere, you know, could do anything.

LANDONi: Sounded like a great time.

David Adams: Oh, could be anything from fishing in the canal to playing ball all day. You know, nice little Stranger Things childhood.

LANDONi: Awesome, awesome. Sounds like those are things that are missing nowadays.

David Adams: Yeah, you know, it's a different way of life now for childhood, you know.

LANDONi: I bet you're still close with a lot of your friends though.

David Adams: Oh yeah, oh yeah. I mean, there's stories that we've done that we'll take to the grave with us, right?

LANDONi: Yeah, well, until today, but yeah.

David Adams: Exactly. But that's awesome. So where did music start for you? Did it start there or family or how did it start?

LANDONi: Yeah, so it basically started in Norco, kind of a combination of friends and family. I had some friends that had gotten guitars and stuff for Christmas and my dad, he played piano.

David Adams: Oh, that's cool.

LANDONi: So we had a piano in our house and my parents, man, they're great parents. They used to have this little theory that if you want your kids to get into something, you don't push it upon them. You just put the things in the house and eventually when they get bored, they'll just start tinkering with it. So we had a guitar, we had a piano, we even had a bass. And man, I would just play around with them. And eventually one day my dad said, "Hey, you know, if you learn a song on piano, I'll give you 20, 40 bucks." I'm like, "Oh, okay, sounds great." So he gave me a week. Oh man, I went to the University of YouTube. I learned "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones.

David Adams: Wow.

LANDONi: Yeah, and I did it in a day. And he came home, I played it for him that night, he gave me my money, and since then, never looked back.

David Adams: That's awesome.

LANDONi: So then that turned into some people in Norco, like I said, they had guitars that they'd gotten for Christmas. So I would start jamming with them. My cousin started playing guitar and then him and I started writing on this little program, it was called Guitar Pro. And man, that was it. That's really where I got into composing and really learning music theory. Then from there, I started playing in a couple of cover bands in high school and college. That was it, man, it just grew.

David Adams: Oh man, yeah, exponential. Once you have that, I keep saying once you've been bitten by music, it just never leaves, you know, and it's a moment that you remember forever.

LANDONi: Oh, it's astronomically contagious. Once you achieve it and you start to feel it, there's nothing like it.

David Adams: There's a lot of struggle beforehand though.

LANDONi: Oh yeah, oh yeah, no bad notes.

David Adams: Yeah, there are days where you try to learn violin or you try to learn guitar and your parents are like, "What are you playing?" But then those days further down the line, they're like, "Oh, I love that song by the car." Those are the days that make it worth it.

LANDONi: 100%.

David Adams: Well, and I also feel like it stems with what you're good at in life. And I understand you're good at math and science.

LANDONi: Yeah, yep.

David Adams: And I feel like math is music. I say that all the time. If you understand music, you can translate that to math. If you understand math, you can translate that to music.

LANDONi: Oh yeah, music is really nothing but cadences and patterns. It's about taking everybody listens to it and they're looking for the different music theory patterns to take you home essentially. Like that five going to the one.

David Adams: Right, the ask and answer.

LANDONi: It's no different than math. Once you learn those patterns, just doing it in all 12 different keys is really how you start making songs.

David Adams: 100%. And that's that basic music theory you can apply. And math, I feel like you can take a basic math theory and apply it to most things in life.

LANDONi: Yeah.

David Adams: But that's why I preach music the same way your parents do. In my house, I have little pianos for my kids. I have a three and a half-year-old and a one-year-old. So I have little pianos and little guitars and little drum machines and little things.

LANDONi: Oh, they bang on it all day long.

David Adams: Next Jimmy Hendrix in the making.

LANDONi: Yeah, my three and a half-year-old plays the guitar upside down though, so I'm hoping he's the new Jimmy Hendrix.

David Adams: That's what I was about to say.

LANDONi: But I don't think he's thinking of it that way.

David Adams: So I heard you did something as a kid that I did as a kid, which was build rockets.

LANDONi: Oh yeah, yeah.

David Adams: So I was a math and science guy and some of my best teachers and biggest influencers growing up were my math and science teachers. I had a science teacher in junior and senior year of high school. I was in Florida and at a private school and I had a teacher that was extremely into building rockets. And that's all we did for my senior year, was build rockets and blow stuff up.

LANDONi: So just gunpowder rockets?

David Adams: Just completely. We had a field behind the school and we would just disappear into the field and shoot rockets off.

LANDONi: So you were making like MythBuster rockets?

David Adams: Yes.

LANDONi: Oh, mine was not like that. Mine was like science fair project rockets. I used to have a 2x4 and I'd basically just put a screw into it, put a wine cork, and then I would tape it. I would put like two-liter bottles on it. The secret formula that everybody's trying to figure out is basically just vinegar and baking soda.

David Adams: Vinegar and baking soda.

LANDONi: Flip it upside down, go 100 feet in the air, then do it again. That was probably elementary school.

David Adams: Got you.

LANDONi: I don't know how my dad would feel about me going to blow stuff up.

David Adams: No, we had little engines and all kinds of stuff. It was cool. Then we had a little guy that parachutes out at some point.

LANDONi: So y'all got bougie with it.

David Adams: Yeah, it was, he was having fun with it. I was getting good grades. I was allowing it to happen.

LANDONi: Was this in Florida?

David Adams: Yeah, so I had to go to a specific school for two reasons. One, I was kind of a bad kid. I got into a fistfight on my visiting day at the high school my mom wanted me to go to in Florida. On visiting day, not my first day. They were, I was visiting to see if I wanted to be there.

LANDONi: You were touring.

David Adams: I was touring, yeah.

LANDONi: That is wild.

David Adams: So needless to say, they didn't want me back. But I was also, I was fishing on a fishing show with my mother for ESPN and we were traveling the Caribbean. I was gone every two weeks fishing. I missed, I think my sophomore year, I missed like 115 days of school.

LANDONi: That's like 33%.

David Adams: I know, it was something stupid like that. I probably had that number wrong, but it's somewhere around there. The school basically said they were only allowing it because I was on TV and it was kind of good exposure for them, but they weren't going to do it next year. That was here. That was Jesuit actually.

LANDONi: Oh really?

David Adams: But then we knew we were moving to Florida. So I was moving to Florida and I got into a fistfight and ended up at this school called Bat Learning Center, which was like a private school, basically private tutoring. I had my own classroom and the teachers rotated to me.

LANDONi: So you didn't even go class to class, teachers went class to class?

David Adams: Yeah, it was only two other people in my class. I ended up dating one of them.

LANDONi: What does BAT stand for?

David Adams: It's B-A-T-T and you know what, I don't even know.

LANDONi: Badass teenager teacher.

David Adams: I love it. But honestly, it was amazing for me because I was not a great student at school. What it did for me was it narrowed things down. I got one-on-one teaching time with the teachers. I did more verbal testing than actual written tests. It was really kind of perfect for me because I was just better at that than writing and book reporting. The way I take in information, I can speak it back out to you, but if I go to write it, I shorten it.

LANDONi: Oh yeah, you condense it.

David Adams: I condense it and I don't even tell the whole story. When you do that for school, you fail every damn time because they want the full story of everything.

LANDONi: I think Albert Einstein's got a quote about that too where he talks about if you teach a monkey to climb a tree, it'll climb the tree. But if you teach a fish to climb the tree, it's going to fail. He was kind of talking about the school systems and about how everybody learns different. Just because you don't have one skill set doesn't mean you don't have another.

David Adams: 100%. That was the thing, they wanted me to go on Ritalin for a while and do that whole situation. I wouldn't do it and the school finally just adjusted to the way it worked. Honestly, my grades went from C's and D's to A's and B's just by that change.

LANDONi: That's awesome.

David Adams: But yeah, rockets is where that whole tangent started.

LANDONi: Yeah.

David Adams: So let's talk a little bit more about your music journey. Piano was your first instrument. Were there any other instruments that you picked up?

LANDONi: Yeah, so it's kind of a gateway instrument. Piano is the gateway to everything else. Once you learn it, you just start picking up other instruments and you're like, "Oh, okay, I'm playing a C4 here," or "I'm playing a C2 here." You start kind of putting that mindset around a guitar or bass. You get to the point where you're like, "Man, you can almost play anything as long as it's kind of percussive and I can use my fingers." Flute and stuff, that's all a different ball game.

David Adams: No jazz flute?

LANDONi: No, I wish I could play the flute. I used to play trumpet a little bit, but the people that perfect that, the technique is just so different.

David Adams: Breath control, just your breathing and the muscles that you use for your lungs alone.

LANDONi: Man, it's so crazy because in New Orleans, people become so numb to it. They build such a tolerance, but there is some serious talent out there on these brass and woodwind instruments.

David Adams: Yeah, it takes as much control as if you're singing.

LANDONi: Oh yes, and if not, maybe even more control because you're pushing through something, you're not just letting it out.

David Adams: Yeah, it's kind of crazy.

LANDONi: Yeah, so I started with trumpet because I started playing piano probably in second or third grade. In fourth grade, they kind of interviewed us all and tested us to see if we would be good at band. I joined the band playing trumpet so I could learn a little bit more about music theory. I used to come home and if I learned a song or some type of score for the day at school, I would take what I learned on trumpet and play it on piano. It helped me learn the trumpet more but also allowed me to train my ear to go from one instrument to another, where those notes were on the actual 88 keys themselves.

David Adams: Right.

LANDONi: So from there, I started learning guitar, enough to sing Kumbaya around a campfire, some CCR stuff, more acoustic stuff. Recently, I've been pushing myself to try to learn lead guitar a little bit more. Piano almost feels like it's an extension of my body. I can make tunes with my mouth and hum certain patterns, and I can play that on the piano. I want to feel that extension of my body on the guitar as well.

David Adams: Yeah, because the beauty about the guitar is you just pack it up and go wherever you want.

LANDONi: Oh, I agree. The piano is a little bit more challenging. You have to find it somewhere in some airport or train station.

David Adams: Well, you know, and I feel like it's more intimate too. A piano can be intimate in the setting, but it's still a huge focal point. A guitar can disappear into the crowd if that makes sense.

LANDONi: Yeah, and I think that's what I like about piano and guitar. There are so many different ways to display expression. You can play super hard and give it a big energetic feel, or you can give it a more subtle feel. Something by The Beatles is a good example of that, something that just creates this romantic atmosphere. It's not flashy but still gorgeous. Guitar is the same way. Between rhythm guitar and lead guitar, there are so many different styles in playing it that you can really harp different emotions in different portions of a song with it.

David Adams: 100%. And you can take it on trips with you too. Did you take a guitar on your European trip? I heard that was a big point.

LANDONi: I did not. It was just me and a backpack. I originally went with three people from college. We traveled for the first seven days, then I spent two weeks by myself.

David Adams: Where?

LANDONi: I started out in France, did Southern France, went from Nice. I did a little detour to Monaco for a day and saw some F1. That was cool, checked out the prince's vehicle collection, classic car collection. It was awesome. Then I went to gamble like a peasant in the Monte Carlo.

David Adams: Nice.

LANDONi: They had a real room for all the high rollers and me. We weren't allowed in that, so we stuck to the slots. From there, I went to Cannes for the film festival. Super cool experience. Did Marseille, did some of the lavender fields, got into some saponification, some soap making. Then I went to Barcelona, really fell in love with Gaudi and the idea of combining engineering, architecture, and art together. It was a cool experience. Went to Ireland by myself. Was kind of tired of the language barrier, so I was like, "Man, I need a sense of home." Not that Dublin does it, but speaking the native tongue kind of helps a little bit.

David Adams: It does.

LANDONi: From there, Paris, Amsterdam, and then I finished my last week with a good friend of mine, Jakob, from high school. He's a foreign exchange student. We rented a car and did the whole west coast of Norway, the Atlantic Ocean Road. We hiked in some of the fjords, did some kayaking. It was totally different than the rest of the European experience. The former half was much more urban, and this one was all about nature. Just a total different change of pace. It was awesome.

David Adams: Sounds like a trip of a lifetime.

LANDONi: Yeah, I actually turned down a job for it. I had gotten an offer after college to be an engineer for this company, and I was like, "Hey, you know, I planned out this trip. I always told myself after college, before I get into the workforce, I have a whole lifetime to work. I'm going to take 30 days to myself and go backpack across Europe." And they were like, "Well, you got to start on June 1st." I was like, "I'm not going to be back till June 4th." They said, "Well, I guess you don't have a job then." So I called their bluff, talked to my parents about it. My parents were like, "Man, go live your life. You have a lifetime to work. It'll figure itself out." So I just went. That was it.

David Adams: That's a huge teaching moment because there are pivotal moments in life where you have to make decisions, and one way or another decides your life.

LANDONi: Oh yeah.

David Adams: Because think about where your life would have been if you had gone to work for the company. Your whole projection of your thought process would be different. The teaching moments that you got on that trip wouldn't be in you at that moment.

LANDONi: The amount of inspiration that I got on that trip, what you learn from different cultures, you can't even put a price on it. It's definitely something that elevates you as a human being.

David Adams: Oh, 100%.

LANDONi: It's priceless. I'll never get that experience again. Engineering, the degree itself, was so demanding. My family is a firm believer that if you do something, you do it well. Spend your energy on it and make sure you do a good job. At the end of the day, you put your head on your pillow saying, "Hey, I tried. I gave all my effort into something."

David Adams: Right.

LANDONi: That's kind of how I felt about engineering. I feel like America is like that, and the general population is like that. That's why we get stuck in this culture of living to work. When I went to Europe, it was just like you work to live. I was like, "My gosh, these people live well." Our idea of success out here in America is just totally different. Their idea of success is time.

David Adams: Yes, yes. That is the most valuable currency.

LANDONi: All the shorts, all the YouTube content that people put down people's feeds, it's because they want that time. That's the most valuable currency. That's what people are paying for.

David Adams: 100%. I feel like they appreciate it in Europe and other countries. They appreciate the time that you have and you spend with your family. Whatever they can do to create that time is what they work hard at.

LANDONi: Oh yeah.

David Adams: And that's it. When they're on vacation, they're on vacation.

LANDONi: Yes. I'm trying to do better in my life. To me, before I felt like in America when you grow up, it's kind of like you go to school, graduate, go to college, get a job, family, buy a house, boom. I'm like, "Man, is that really what I want?" Not saying that it doesn't work for other people, but for me, Landon, is that going to work for me? The answer to that was no. I value my time more. I want to do more things that I enjoy. That Europe trip taught me that and inspired me to say, "Hey, I've been writing music for a long time. Why not put it out there?" People from high school and stuff don't like it, who cares? Maybe they're not supposed to.

David Adams: Absolutely. If you had to pick a favorite spot in Europe, where do you think it would be?

LANDONi: Man, Paris was great. I really loved Norway. Being in that outdoors just feels super nice, super natural. Kayaking was awesome. But there was something about Paris, all the people watching you can do and the number of cafes. Gosh, I got addicted to coffee out there.

David Adams: It's probably way better than it is here.

LANDONi: Man, it was delicious. What was really interesting about Paris is there were so many people. I kind of feel like I'm an extrovert, and I feel relaxed around people. But what was cool is that I knew enough French to order food, but I didn't know enough to get distracted from conversations around me. I had this weird sense of zen in the crowd, sitting in a cafe, drinking coffee, and just people watching. I was really able to say, "Hey man, what do you want to do with your life? Where are you going? What's the next chapter?" I was able to feed off of that energy without being distracted from a conversation next to me.

David Adams: That's awesome. Those moments are important. You definitely have to take those in and learn from them. They're special. They're special.

LANDONi: Yeah.

David Adams: That's awesome. You know, New Orleans and Paris have a lot of commonality too.

LANDONi: Oh yeah. I didn't realize how European New Orleans kind of is until I spent a lot of time out there. Their culture in general is just so sophisticated and they appreciate arts so much. New Orleans is just like that.

David Adams: 100%.

LANDONi: 100%. I feel like we're starting, as much as it's been since Katrina, we still are coming back from that situation, but I feel like we're starting to get a little bit back.

David Adams: Oh yeah. It takes forever to rebuild.

LANDONi: You have a storm like that come wipe you out.

David Adams: Well, then you had all the corporate money come in, you had all kinds of people trying to come in and taint it. I feel like it's starting to roll back into what we used to be.

LANDONi: Yeah. I'm glad you mentioned that. You see a lot of cities like Houston. I love Houston, and there's so many different cultures in Houston, so many people work abroad. You have Chinatown and then you have the normal CBD, but Houston itself has no identity to me. American culture is so corporate and working all the time that there's no identity in Houston. Houston is where you go to work and there's good sports, but if you think about cities that people travel to like Nashville, Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans, the culture there is not that corporate culture.

David Adams: Not at all. We were built on pirates, so I mean it stayed that way.

LANDONi: Yeah, that's what I love about New Orleans. It's just The Big Easy.

David Adams: Definitely. Tell us a little bit about your EP that you got coming out.

LANDONi: I just released an EP back in March. It's called Ghost, and it's a nine-song EP. I have four collaborations on it with a couple local artists from the city, a guy named Kronos that I went to high school with, another guy Trynn that raps from high school, and then I also did a song with Callie Pierce as well.

David Adams: We love Callie. Shout out Callie.

LANDONi: Yeah, shout out to Callie Pierce. The whole concept of it is when you go to your deathbed, there are going to be ghosts around your deathbed. It's going to be your hidden talents, your ideas, dreams, things that you either brought to life or you never acted on. These ghosts are either going to be super appreciative that you acted on them and tried to bring them to life, or they're going to resent you that they're going to the grave with you and you never even gave them a chance. The whole concept of this EP is about that.

David Adams: Six cents, huh?

LANDONi: Yeah, yeah. It's pretty moving. It kind of has a little cinematic feel to it, kind of a little indie electronic feel to it as well, but also has a good pop feel to it.

David Adams: Whenever you put out an album that actually tells a story, I feel like there's always a better result.

LANDONi: Yeah, and that's kind of what I wanted to do. I always got into making singles, and I know that's kind of where the music industry is right now. But to me, I wanted the challenge of making a project where every song felt different but also felt cohesive at the same time to put you on a journey.

David Adams: Awesome.

LANDONi: Now I'll start doing some more singles.

David Adams: That's awesome. Let's talk a little bit about the future of music. What do you think about Dolby Atmos? Is that something that you would use in your projects?

LANDONi: I think so. It's interesting. It's fun. The idea right now is, to me, it's a lot about movies and it's a lot about video gaming. I mean, it's 3D animation with music mixing combined basically.

David Adams: Yeah.

LANDONi: The challenge with music is that right now they're mixing for normal left-right headphones, so you're just mixing it in stereo. I think it's tough to get to the point where the average American consumer or average music consumer in the world can get the actual equipment to really enjoy it. I think that's the challenge that the engineering is going to have to overcome and also the market.

David Adams: It's starting. Some of your car production companies have adapted it into their premium systems. Apple's got the new iPads or iPods now that have Spatial Audio.

LANDONi: Yeah, I was thinking about buying those.

David Adams: They've started to adapt it. The home theater stuff, the soundbars, it's starting to get there. But I do agree it took a while. It started with immersive sound, then it went into Sony having its own version of it, and there were a couple of other versions of it, but then it turned into Dolby Atmos.

LANDONi: Yeah, and I think for music lovers out there, it's going to be great, especially if you go back to albums. When you hear little certain things in an album, Bohemian Rhapsody in Atmos is nuts.

David Adams: You have to because of the background vocals.

LANDONi: Oh, they're everywhere.

David Adams: When they mix it, do they mix it almost like you're in a concert?

LANDONi: They mix it like you're in the studio session with them.

David Adams: So it's probably a little bit of both, but you feel like you're more in the moment than if you're in the studio. You feel like it's surrounded by you and you're the only person in the concert watching.

LANDONi: So it's more cerebral, like you're more in your head.

David Adams: You feel it 100%. It depends on how you mix it too because someone could take a live band and place their drum set dead center, then place the bass on the right, the guitar on the left, and just bleed it into the center a little bit, and you feel like you're watching a live band play.

LANDONi: That's cool, that's so cool.

David Adams: For live musicians, it's really important. Country has done a great job in mixing with it. I feel like the urban space needs to really make it.

LANDONi: Oh yeah, I want to start messing with it. It seems totally interesting to create some songs on it. I feel like the average person that listens to music doesn't necessarily give the mixer or the engineer credit when it comes to mixing and mastering. It's almost kind of a thankless job and it's so underappreciated.

David Adams: It's like the live sound guy.

LANDONi: Yeah, now it's going to probably become more obvious to the average music consumer.

David Adams: I feel like artists are going to appreciate the new knowledge of it because a lot of artists are going to learn the first time they do a project and they're going to be watching an engineer expand their sound. I feel like they're going to appreciate it more.

LANDONi: Oh yeah, most definitely. What's really crazy about it is if you think about it, I was thinking about where the music industry and the movie industry influenced going into this Dolby Atmos right now. How is Dolby Atmos going to influence that? Because it's always a give and take game.

David Adams: 100%.

LANDONi: To me, the game changer is going to be when they start making movies where instead of you following the protagonist like we do now, when you put the VR headset on and you are the protagonist. That's going to be the game changer.

David Adams: I agree, I agree.

LANDONi: Then it's almost a video game in a sense.

David Adams: A video game.

LANDONi: Yeah, basically.

David Adams: Let's talk a little bit about what brings elation to you in your life.

LANDONi: Easy, music.

David Adams: Music?

LANDONi: Now there are other things, right? Family, friends, loved ones, traveling.

David Adams: But that all makes music in your ears, right?

LANDONi: Yes.

David Adams: That all makes music to me, right?

LANDONi: Yeah.

David Adams: That's awesome, man. I love music because it can truly reach everybody at some point in their life.

LANDONi: Oh yeah.

David Adams: Somebody, no matter what, has been touched by a song at some point. It doesn't even matter if it's in the right language. There are Spanish songs I have no clue what they're saying, but I listen and scream it like I know what's going on.

LANDONi: Oh yeah.

David Adams: It's crazy how you can get across emotions through language barriers with just music alone.

LANDONi: Absolutely.

David Adams: Well, great answer. Why don't you tell everybody about your socials and where they can find your EP?

LANDONi: You can find my EP out on Apple Music, Spotify, any streaming service really. The socials, Instagram, Twitter, all LANDONi music, and then it's just LANDONi on Facebook.

David Adams: Awesome, awesome. Well, great, thanks for coming today and I appreciate your time.

LANDONi: Anytime, thank you for having me on here. Good conversation.

David Adams: And thank you guys for joining us on Elation podcast, where we find exhilarating euphoria through creation and collaboration.