Creating Opportunities Through Authenticity

Lee T. Baker 0:00

young , old , black , white , rich , poor , educated , uneducated , whatever like figuring out how to be themselves and win something , because the opportunity is just there and so , for all its faults , in social media and the way that digital culture is , there is like an open opportunity If you want to do the work and figure out some stuff about yourself , figure out what you love to do , figure out what makes you you and then just figure out how to do that you know in front of a camera enough that people will care . It really is an interesting time and I don't feel aged out . I feel like in the music industry right now . If you just take care of yourself , you have good character and you show up on time and you're nice to people . I mean , you got to play , you got to be able to play , but like that's , there's a million people who can play . There's less people who can show up on time and be nice .

Rhett 0:56

What is going on ? Armchair Authentic Podcast family , it is so great to have you back for another episode . Our hope is to serve you with our stories and have real life conversations with real people . Today , you are in for a treat , because we had a conversation with a friend of ours . His name is Lee T Baker . Now , if you haven't heard of Lee , let me just fill you in . He's a guitarist , a songwriter , a producer , is an all around artist who's worked with and shared the stage with platinum artists around the world , Grammy award winners , as well as several up-and-coming artists in a multitude of genres .

Rhett 1:33

This conversation is really special and , we hope , inspires you and encourages you , maybe in a new and fresh way . Now , before we get into the conversation , we do want to say thank you to every single one of you who have taken the time to rate and review the podcast . It really is great to hear from you . It is so encouraging to both Justin and I , and it serves as a great way to help people who aren't on this journey yet . Now , if you're new to the podcast , welcome to the podcast family . It's great to have you along . If you haven't already done so , could we encourage you to go online to Instagram and Facebook and to follow us at Armchair Authentic . That's Armchair Authentic . You can also follow us on X at Armchair Off Pod . That's Armchair Off A-U-T-H-P-O-D . All right , and now onto the conversation . You guys ready , here we go .

Rhett 2:33

Justin , it is so exciting to have on the podcast today Lee T Baker . Lee is a guitarist . He's a songwriter and producer who has worked with and shared the stage with platinum artists , Grammy award winners as well as up and coming artists in a multitude of genres . Lee is also a coach to creatives , creative leaders and creative organizations through MyFi coaching and even host his own MyFi podcast where he interviews creative people about their journey , their process and their work . Lee is also a solo singer-songwriter and he's so excited his new album , Stone Tiger , will be dropping on December 6 , 2024 . He has singles like Astronaut , let's Just Wait , the Night , A Murder and others , all from the album , and they're out now on all your favorite streaming platforms . Lee , it is so great to have you on Armchair Authentic today .

Lee T. Baker 3:35

Hey , it's good to be here . Thank you , guys , so much .

Justin 3:38

You know me and Lee . We actually go way back , so he's not just someone that we're having a conversation with , but he is . He's such a good friend to me and we go back many years , and whether we found ourself in the same city for an event , which we did , many of those , we had some phone calls . We're always kind of catching up on what's going on in each other's life . Or me and my pal John Ross come crashing your guest room , which you were always so good with that , bro .

Justin 4:03

Good breakfast that he provides too by the way , that was all my wife . We got to give full credit to Jacqueline there . But yes , but man , seriously , when I think of Lee T Baker , I think of someone who we've always said this with each other but you're just a great hang . I love when we get to hang , bro .

Lee T. Baker 4:21

Well , and back at you and the intro . I appreciate , um , it always makes people sound like more important than they are . It's all fine like I played a little music and I get to spend time with people . That's like the real idea he's spoken from a very humble person .

Rhett 4:37

I've just gotten to know you over the past few minutes before this podcast and yeah , and I just have to set it up too . Man , you know you're talking to an artist by what they have in the background on their video shot . Now I know we don't use video on our podcast . Right now We've got several people going . Man , we go video .

Rhett 4:51

We're probably not at any time soon , but I just want to paint the picture man , I mean like a true artist guitar , leather chairs , the lighting , the vibe , the eagle shirt , the necklace , the hat .

Justin 5:05

But I mean , like you got to go on dude .

Rhett 5:06

So I know you're being humble , but you are an artist man . You've done some amazing things .

Justin 5:09

If he's not wearing leather pants , he's missing an opportunity . I don't want to know , I don't want to know I don't want to know I'm not .

Rhett 5:15

Let's keep it waist up on this one .

Justin 5:17

Yeah , we'll get so much more into what Lee is doing , especially as a fellow podcaster . That's why I make some of the jokes with him too . It's like when you watch the news feeds and they got the nice suit on top . It's always the jokes that they're really liking shorts underneath .

Rhett 5:35

Yeah , well , I'm wearing shorts .

Justin 5:37

That really could be , that really could be .

Rhett 5:38

Lee , right now . Yeah , you are . Yeah , I'm wearing a black shirt and shorts . Let's go . No , I'm wearing a black shirt and shorts .

Lee T. Baker 5:43

Let's go . No , no , no , I'm ready , I got ready . I showered for you guys , thank you man , thank you . Only to find out it's not on video , right ? Yeah , yeah .

Justin 5:51

But just so our audience gets to learn about you , if we could back this up a little bit , really , the time that I met you it was , you know , which I still am , but it was a time that you were on staff at a church and really not just the church serving , but you were serving or leading a very large team which was leading a very large congregation , ultimately stepping into some new endeavors which we'll talk about in a few minutes . But could you take us there a little bit Like what got you into even in the first part , being a musician inside the church .

Lee T. Baker 6:27

I grew up in church . My parents , you know from birth , I feel like you know we went to church . It was just kind of the Southern thing to do , I guess , at the time . But my mom's always been a believer in Christ and was super passionate about that . My dad too , and so you know we grew up around it , um , but I I didn't I never like really bought in . Uh , when I my middle school years were a little rough cause I was playing in bands with people who were older than me . I tell the story a lot to people who ask , like you know , the uh , the first time you remember hearing music , my dad gave me a box of eight tracks when I was a kid I was probably like four or five years old , but I have like a vivid memory of this and a box of eight tracks and an eight track player . If you're young you don't know what that is .

Rhett 7:09

Yeah , you might have to explain that to some of our artists . They're like eight track . What is this ? A train track ?

Lee T. Baker 7:15

Yeah , you think they're cool . They sell them at antique shops , that's right . But yeah , my dad gave me this box of eight tracks and it was like Zeppelin , houses of the Holy and Black Sabbath and the Eagles and stuff like that . And so I just remember sitting there listening , going this is amazing . And then for my birthday that year my parents gave me Thriller on vinyl . Yes , let's go , duran , duran 45 .

Justin 7:37

Oh yeah .

Lee T. Baker 7:42

And I don't know . I just fell in love with music and so it was always around it . I was in bands when I was in middle school with guys who were a lot older than me and so I ended up getting into trouble in middle school and everything . And then high school came around , had some guys stop by and invite us to church and first kind of like cool group of people I had met no offense to anyone that I met before that , but that was associated with the church and I was like , okay , these dudes are cool , you know , and develop some lifelong friendships . In fact , my best friend , todd , I met that night that they invited us to church I think I was 15 . And my son his middle name is Todd after him and so obviously made a big impact on my life . And then we started , you know , just playing in the church . There were guys who were musicians there , who were guitar players , bass players , you know stuff that were unbelievable , and so I just looked up to those guys and kind of kind of , uh , you know , found a home there and playing and learning and growing musically and spiritually and all this sort of stuff .

Lee T. Baker 8:33

I met my wife as she went to the same church . We were teenagers and high school sweethearts and all that . Um felt like you know I loved music and I , you know , had had a great experience in the church , so going into ministry seemed like a no brainer . Um went , uh went to Florida . We got married in 02 , uh went to Florida to help start a plant church there and was at that church . That church was about two years old when we joined up . Um was at that church for 12 years .

Lee T. Baker 9:00

Uh came up to the Atlanta area to work for another church in 2014 and worked there for eight years and then made the transition outside of ministry . So I was in ministry for a little over 20 years 21 , 22 years , I guess full time and then made that transition out . But we loved it , the church that I was working at previously . Here I still attend one of those campuses and just volunteer and play guitar and MD and stuff when I'm in town and and uh , and so we're still connected . You know the kids are there , both of them play there , and you know my wife helps with child check-in on Sunday mornings and stuff like that , and so we're we're we're still connected , just in a a more of a , a way that fits my introvert personality . You know what I'm saying .

Justin 9:43

Which is funny , hearing that you're an introvert , you know , I know you say , yeah , I believe it , but from afar you would never know . Because Lee is this . I mean , he's this musician . You see him on the stage and when you see him he's letting loose . He's either singing , he's playing . I mean such a phenomenal electric guitarist , such a creative . But when you see him from afar you would not think introvert , yeah , it's like the , it's like you remember the . Looney Tunes , the frog .

Rhett 10:14

hello my baby , hello my honey and then you come around and it's just like ribbit , yeah , and then go sit in my car in the dark for like an hour .

Rhett 10:21

It's interesting to me , though , a lot of creatives and artists that I've met along the journey in music and our career and different things we've done . Most of them are introverted . It's amazing . But yet you get on the stage and it's like everything that you're not all of a sudden comes out . You know , and it's like everybody thinks you're like this incredible not you , but just as an extroverted human for what you're doing with your art . And then , once you come off that platform , it's like everybody kind of comes back in their shell .

Lee T. Baker 10:45

So oh man , I always tell people it's less about the environment and more like where you get your energy . That's so good , and I don't dislike people by any means . I love being around people , but the stage I don't feel like I'm around . There's people in the room , but I'm not really interacting one-on-one with people .

Jeff Roberts 11:02

You know what I'm saying .

Lee T. Baker 11:03

And there's just a lot of energy in the room and it's cool . But I do enjoy , like you know , when things are over and like sitting somewhere quiet . That's good . You know what I'm saying , yeah absolutely .

Rhett 11:13

Well , I know you just kind of talked a little bit about your journey and you you .

Rhett 11:16

There's probably so many micro details we could kind of just dive into , but some stood out to me about the power of an invite . I wrote that down because you had a friend that invited you to church and it obviously was a life-giving moment for you to experience something different in a way that actually inspired you to obviously give a huge portion of your life to and I mean that's massive in itself . So , if you're listening , never underestimate the power of an invite to a friend , because obviously it's changed your life and put you on a trajectory of the power of an invite to a friend because obviously it's changed your life and put you on a trajectory of a lot of blessing in your life from what God has done in and through you and is continuing to do . But I'm really interested in in that shift , you know , because I know you said you're not really in ministry . But I would ask the question do you feel like you're more in ministry now than you were whenever you were quote in ministry for what you're doing on the level you're doing now ?

Lee T. Baker 12:09

I mean that could be the case . I'll give you the short version sort of of that transition time in my life and then I'm happy to expound on anything and really in hopes that it would help somebody else who may be on a similar journey . Else who may be on , you know , a similar journey .

Career Shift Due to Burnout

Lee T. Baker 12:23

Um 20 , 2019 , I remember there was a huge event , uh , I was leading , uh , we had two nights at our , our , uh , our main campus or whatever , and Justin has been in that building before and it's a big room , you know . It was a big couple of nights was packed , you know , a lot of energy .

Lee T. Baker 12:42

And I remember getting off the stage the second night and getting in my car and just having this feeling like I don't ever want to do that again and it was just like not really out of nowhere . But I think I was just kind of afraid to voice it , maybe or something , I don't know . But I talked to my boss the next week and I was just like man , I think I'm tired . He was like man , let's get you some time off , off . Um , I broke , uh , my pinky finger on my left hand and ended up having two surgeries like a couple of weeks after that , so I wasn't playing guitar . Uh , you know , I got some time off , which was great . Uh , went home for Christmas for the first time in 20 years and went to Christmas Eve with my parents , which was amazing , and um and uh , uh , after the first of the year , you know , still rehabbing and everything , and then , and then that was the end of 2019 . We all remember how 2020 got started yeah .

Jeff Roberts 13:28

Wow .

Lee T. Baker 13:29

And so you know , I thought , well , this is crazy , like we're going to get a couple of weeks off , you know , from running all these campuses and all this stuff . And then it ended up being way more work and just relationally there was a lot of tension figuring out you know how things were going to go and what ministry and all that stuff looked like on the other side of the pandemic and all this sort of stuff . And I just got thinner and thinner , uh , emotionally and spiritually . And uh , I had a friend invite me to play , uh , at a show in Puerto Rico , um , with these uh three uh classical pianists and so it's kind of so it was kind of a Vegas thing . So we were doing like Guns N' Roses and Toto and covers and things and then those guys would do a little bit of their stuff .

Lee T. Baker 14:12

But it was a lot of work and a great , huge venue in San Juan . It was really life-giving to go play a show like that again because it had been a while for me and we had somebody approach us about playing for this massive artist at the time and that didn't work out , but it gave me a lot of confidence and just started opening up my mind and go like man , I don't something's changing , I don't know what it is . Um explored that a little bit more the next year , in the spring of 22, . I went and and I was just like man I think I'm done to my boss and they kindly were like , hey , why don't you just take a break for a little while ? So I did Came back from that and I knew I was done when I left and I didn't know what was next ?

Justin 14:55

Enjoyed the break , yeah .

Lee T. Baker 14:58

Yeah , it was just . I mean , I think I did . I don't know If I didn't know . It was just out of fear . I did . I don't know .

Rhett 15:05

If I didn't know , it was just out of fear , because that 20 , 20 years of paychecks .

Lee T. Baker 15:12

Yeah , yeah , you can say you got faith , but brother , yeah , talk about that man . I mean , go spend a season self-employed , homie yeah no , no , that's good .

Rhett 15:16

Hey , this is real talk . You know it's armchair , authentic for a reason . We're really trying to get into the nitty gritty and the grind , but the steps of faith , you know , I mean you're obviously comfortable , you're living . Whatever the church dream would be in some people's eyes . You're seeing , you know what it is for what it is , you know , and trying to be respectful on some fronts . But , like , talk to me , you know I'm hearing you say man , I just felt like it was done .

Rhett 15:42

Can you dive into that a little bit more ? Because I'm sure there's people listening feeling like maybe they're in the middle of a transition or they're maybe they're dreaming about some things or maybe in a hard place , or maybe they're right where you were and they don't really know how to filter that next step into man , try to walk into . You know , no paychecks for a while . You know cause ? I think a lot of people like to remain in their comfort just for those reasons . Right , because we're human . But obviously something was going on in your heart and your spirit and your mind and going . There's more to this , there's more in my life and I need to take a step . I don't know what that looks like . But I mean , I don't want to put words in your mouth , but that's kind of what I'm hearing . Can you talk a little bit about that ?

Lee T. Baker 16:18

Yeah , I never wanted to be Um uh . It was never in my desire to like be in charge of things , but I do really love creative people and I don't think there's a lot of leaders out there who are good at taking care of creative people . That's not been my experience . That's not been the experience of most , if not close to all , of the creative people I ever talked to . We're just a little bit different to lead and so I think I kept getting promoted , not because I was some outstanding leader , but because I just cared about all the people that were on my team well and and I just didn't want to be in charge . And then , when you get in charge , you have to be a make leader decisions and , bro , I like write songs and play music and stuff . Like I didn't sign up to like tick off 25 people because I want to do this .

Rhett 17:04

It's so good , so good .

Lee T. Baker 17:06

I just don't , I just don't care . Like you know , we could do , let's do whatever you guys want to do . I don't , I don't really , you know .

Rhett 17:13

I just , I just want to right .

Lee T. Baker 17:15

No , this is true , I love this and and there's a whole lot in um , you know there can be a whole lot in big corporations uh , modern church , there's a lot of majoring on minor stuff , man , because it makes people feel valuable and that just creates tension and I just got tired of managing that to be

Finding Peace and Purpose After Transition

Lee T. Baker 17:35

super Frank . There were some things during the COVID season that I feel like , uh , you know not , I don't want to like indict you know my church , but we're all going to disagree on things . There were just things I feel like we were kind of fumbling the ball on in our response to during the pandemic and things like that , according to what I thought and believed personally . And not enough , dude , I love Jesus , I love the church . All of us have family members who are kind of a mess .

Lee T. Baker 18:03

I've been that family member before in my family , you know and all that , and so you know they're a mess , but they're family , so you don't give up on them and that's kind of been , like my relationship with the church . Like dude , the church is a mess at times , Like it's family bro , Like you can't bounce , so anyway . But I didn't have to work there anymore and I wanted my whole life . I feel like I had processed most of my spirituality working for an organization , which you can only process so much .

Jeff Roberts 18:36

You know what ?

Lee T. Baker 18:36

I'm saying you can't start processing outside the boundaries of what the organization deems is safe , so good .

Lee T. Baker 18:41

And so I never got to ask some personal things in my whole adult life about what I really believe about some stuff , and I think some of that just started .

Lee T. Baker 18:49

You know , my whole adult spiritual life was on a platform in front of thousands of people and I just kind of I just wanted to be by myself and figure some stuff out and make sure I was leading my wife correctly and rightly and rightly and that our marriage was good and that I was doing the right stuff for my kids and helping them work out their own journey and spirituality and how to love people and treat people and engage the world that's super different from them and all that sort of stuff .

Lee T. Baker 19:16

And honestly , when I would dip a toe in the music industry , what I would find out is people just didn't really like or respect people who worked in the church and I had no credibility to , you know , and and that just bothered me for a little bit , not because I wanted the credibility for myself , but I just love being around people who are different than me . I really love it and and I Justin knows me pretty well . So I hope you know what I mean by the statement , because I definitely don't mean any offense . But I love the church but I've never been like a churchy dude so I never like bought into the subculture .

Lee T. Baker 19:53

Like you know , I never and not not as bad that you do , man , do whatever you feel like is what you're supposed to do . Like I just was never . I felt way more at home in other places , and you know all of that and all that's just started to wear on me . Integrity as an artist is really important to me . I love things that I can tell are like real , whether it's an artist or an author or whatever and so I feel that way about myself , and the minute when I walked off that stage in 2019 , I said , if I keep doing this , I'm going to be faking . Yeah , wow .

Lee T. Baker 20:27

And I also think that when you start feeling that way , you start , you start faking one thing , you start faking the next thing and the next thing and then , before you know it , you've , you know , stolen money or ended up on cocaine , or cheated on your spouse or like whatever it is that you like wear down your character through all that faking stuff . And I was like , bro , I'm not being a statistic , that's not me , dude and so I had no idea what I was going to do . I knew through the help of a mentor . I love two things making stuff and caring about creative people .

Lee T. Baker 20:52

And so I was like , well , maybe I can make a living doing that . And changing careers at 43 , with two teenage kids and a mortgage and stuff is , like you know , crazy .

Rhett 21:04

No , it is crazy . And I was about to ask you how old you were , because , yeah , I'm 45 , so you're 45 . Now I'm 47 , justin's 46 , and so it's interesting to me to see that at that age some seasonal transitions happening .

Lee T. Baker 21:17

In your boldness to step out into that , um man , yeah well and everybody thinks being a musician is like not a real career choice . True , Anyway , yeah , but at 43 , people are like oh , this dude he's having a midlife crisis .

Rhett 21:32

He's got his midlife crisis all the way . Yeah , he's about to buy a vent and you know , like whatever you know , but it but it it really wasn't that .

Lee T. Baker 21:40

And so I've enjoyed the last couple of years of like I have no um , I have a mentor in my life who I really love . I got close friends in my life . You know who I really love , people who've been rock solid supporters and help every step and stuff and then making music that I can make a really good living . And then when I'm home , I'm just home . Uh , you know , I'm touring a little bit with an artist right now , but that just started , like you know , over the summer . And so for the past two years I've really been working from home , producing and writing and doing coaching phone calls and then doing trips to , you know , onsite coaching stuff for organizations that needed me to come in , and so I was really like home a ton . And even now , when I'm off the road , I volunteer my son's in the high school band and I volunteer as a chaperone at band practice and you know just anything to try to be around my family .

Lee T. Baker 22:41

uh , while I'm home and my , my wife and I were talking this summer , we just man , as long as we can make this stage of life work , we're going to make it work you know , as long as yeah she works in the mortgage industry and she , uh , you know , was home with the kids until my daughter went to middle school and then she started exploring what it would be like to get back in the workforce , you know , outside the home , and all that and and it's just been killing it . She's super smart and super great and was super supportive , you know , during this whole season and all that , so I couldn't make it without her . But but yeah , and so now I've , I've really enjoyed getting to process , you know , spiritual things and emotional things and priorities and all that sort of stuff with . No , I mean , it's an artist's dream , dude , it's the artist's punk rock dream to just like do what I want .

Jeff Roberts 23:28

Well , to do what you want , yeah .

Lee T. Baker 23:30

Yeah , not in an egotistical way I just I don't have to answer to anybody when I'm asking myself these questions for the first time in my life , whether that's like a spiritual thing or an artistic thing or whatever it may be . And so now I have artistic friends and you know spiritual mentors and people in my life . You know spiritual mentors and people in my life , you know , and all that , and that's been great .

Justin 23:46

You have served the vision of an organization , if you will . You've served it well and made sure that people are taken care of all this stuff . But there are still expressions in you that you're giving yourself permission now , in this time of life , to actually go pursue , and you're not saying that you're not listening to authorities . I mean , you already said two times before , which I love you've got mentors , so you've got the . You've got the care of people . It's just there's an organizational structure that you served for a while and now you felt a shift in that organizational structure . Right now might be Lee T Baker or it might be MyFi coaching , which we'll go there in a minute too , but it's still an organizational structure . But now you're focused on there's a lot more agency that you're getting to really fully explore .

Lee T. Baker 24:36

Yeah , and the pace is mine . I think that's the thing that I like to control is the pace . I can kind of say yes and no to whatever I want , and that's been really great . Say yes and no to whatever I want , and that's been really great . Um , I tell people like I have more , like just peace in my life and joy and rest than I ever have , and I don't mean to , like you know , throw a ministry career under the bus , cause I'm I'm super grateful for it . I don't have any like well , man , I should have done this a long time ago . I just wasn't part of it , right , I I grateful for those years , you know , and the relationships I've built and people that I met and people's lives . I got to be part of all this . Stuff's great , um , but I've just never experienced this kind of peace and and pace and , you know , freedom , and it's just been awesome , uh , over the past couple of years and knowing that I can hit the reset button and , you know , hopefully do this for a long .

Lee T. Baker 25:25

I have no plans I . The word retirement is just gross to me . That's fine , it's somebody's plan . I mean , we're saving for retirement , cause that's what you do . But like , like man , I want to do what I'm doing until I can't do it anymore . You know what I'm saying . I don't know what else there would be . Somebody asked me the other day if I had a hobby besides music . I'm like why ?

Rhett 25:45

That's a great answer .

Lee T. Baker 25:46

I mean , I love football . You know what I'm saying . I love watching sports and stuff , but , dude , like I mean , I don't have , I don't have off days , I don't want to .

Justin 25:54

I always joke with Rhett , and I'm like you know . I'm saving for retirement too . I'm putting it into this private school for four boys , but I just don't know if they're going to give it back

Embracing Transition and Ageless Creativity

Justin 26:02

to me . I don't think the interest rates , yeah , I don't know what happens but I do want to take you back to a moment in 2019 . Cause I love watching worlds collide , and so when I hear you say something , I can remember . I mentioned his name earlier , but one of my best friends , John Ross .

Rhett 26:21

Shout out to John Ross we love you . I know you're listening . John Ross , we love you , I know you're listening .

Justin 26:25

John Ross is , yes , loyal listener and just one of my greatest friends , and uh Lee invited us to come hang with him a couple of days back and it was . I believe it was . I can tell you why I can timestamp it it was late October 2019 .

Lee T. Baker 26:39

November 6th was that event oh my gosh .

Justin 26:43

Okay . So , Lee , I'm here . I mean , there's some of these defining moments for me . I remember we get there , me and John Ross , we go . You're having a rehearsal . I had recently just made a decision to step out of something I had been in for a long time .

Justin 26:57

Yeah , I remember that , and it was very much like what you do for your church . It's what I was doing for my church and I had just made the decision to step out your church . It's what I was doing for my church and I had just made the decision to step out . But here I am with you guys doing I was doing like a little coaching , consulting thing with your worship staff and you began singing a song with your team , just rehearsing . And it wasn't like just a rehearsal , rick , because one thing about Lee is when he plays a song it's all his emotion going into it , like it's not , like it's not just rehearsal . He sings , you're feeling him sing the song and I mean I can count on a . You know within one hand how many times has this happened to me , and this was one of them . You began singing a song and the band's playing and you began flowing a little bit .

Justin 27:40

Like don't let the song end . Once again it speaks to your deal , like don't put parameters only here . But you were just letting it flow a little bit with your team , almost like you were letting them be ministered to . A moment , like this is not just about learning a song for rehearsal . And I just remember I was overwhelmed with emotion and I sat on the ground and I just began weeping , putting my head just laying them on my knees and just weeping , and it's like I can't control it . And here's the only definition I had in that moment .

Justin 28:10

It was almost like letting go of something that is so important to you that you don't know how you're going to function once you let go of it .

Justin 28:18

And that was me .

Justin 28:19

I was letting this thing go and your song was actually ministering to me and it was what I needed because it would have literally been the next day I'm doing a session with your team and I had like a 10 minute break before I was going back on and I got the official call from HR to make that transition to the next deal and I literally verbally like agree . And I go to the email and sign the transition as I walk back in to go do the second session for your team , and so when you're talking about the hearts that are connected , you're going through some of these similar emotions . At that time , I just thought that was really , really cool because , even though you were feeling transition , your work and your anointing , if you will , your gift set as a musician , was actually ministering to one of your fellow musicians out in that empty audience for a rehearsal , and that was a moment that I've probably repeated countless times when I've been talking to other people on monumental moments for yourself , and it was actually as you were singing that song .

Lee T. Baker 29:23

I remember that we went running the next morning with John Ross .

Justin 29:25

Oh my gosh .

Lee T. Baker 29:27

Yeah , and I think John Ross , maybe was it . No , it's you that runs , so much .

Justin 29:31

No , well , it is , but John Ross is the one who got me back into it , so he you got him into it and then he got you back into it .

Rhett 29:39

No , John , I can't take credit . Oh .

Justin 29:42

No , I can't take credit . John Ross inspired me to like up the distance and running . Oh yeah , because the first time I remember it's not long now , but it was a four mile- run and I'm practically about throw up . And John Ross is . He's having to like stop , because we're trying to run from this village to the next village in the , in the city we live in , and I'm like , bro , please stop , hold on .

Justin 30:06

But after that he's the one who got me into it , and so now , oh yeah , now it's like you can just run , run , run .

Lee T. Baker 30:12

I still do too . I run five days a week and I love it , but I just I remember that .

Justin 30:16

That was awesome .

Lee T. Baker 30:16

It was a good visit , man .

Justin 30:18

It was .

Lee T. Baker 30:18

Yeah , that was . It seemed like that was a pivotal time for a lot of people and I don't really know why if it was like a little bit of our age and experience and what we were doing and all that sort of stuff . But but yeah , I knew something was going to change , uh , that fall . I just I had no idea that five years later , you know , I'd be sitting here doing what I'm doing and , uh , you know , and so I'm super super thankful for it , super thankful that , you know , I had the opportunity to to make that transition , uh , I think , in a uh appropriate amount of time , you know , and not have to hang around too long .

Lee T. Baker 30:53

The , the financial part of that stuff is super scary because I , I didn't , you know , I didn't . I knew what I wanted to do , but to have to go out and do that work and nobody's holding you accountable and nobody's building anything for you . And you know , I spent a lot of days sitting in this chair looking at this screen like designing websites and talking to people about logos and trying to come up with a business plan and trying to figure , you know , trying to figure out how to reconnect with people in the industry that I music industry . I lost touch with and build those relationships and and you know all that sort of stuff . Man and I I never could have imagined it would have progressed .

Lee T. Baker 31:29

I kept telling people I don't think I was ever pushy , but I was definitely assertive because I was like , dude , I'm 43 at the time I'm like I don't have time to waste bro . Like , yeah , if I'm going to get in here and get this done , like I can't be like building relationships for 10 years , dude , I'll be 53 years old in 10 years . So I'm like I got to . I got to figure this out .

Rhett 31:47

The creative world seems like forever old , you know . For whatever reason , it's like oh , if you're not young anymore , you've lost your . You know your edge . Well , you know what's funny , though .

Lee T. Baker 31:56

I've experienced the opposite in the music industry . I work with producers in Atlanta doing R&B and hip hop and pop stuff , and I play with this artist , max McNown . Max is 23 . Some of these producers I work with are in their 20s as well . Nobody ever makes me feel that way , that way , like I think that social media you know for , for all its issues you know , and what it's done to society , like one of the good things it's done is like kind of destroy ageism a little bit , I think in the creative industry , because I have a friend who's been on my podcast . Her name's Dorothea Taylor . She's a 70 something year old drummer and she's got like 2 million TikTok followers .

Rhett 32:35

I know who you're talking about , dude . She's amazing , yeah , yeah .

Lee T. Baker 32:39

Yeah , she's awesome man and she would tell you like nobody ever says anything to her about her age and I know that's part of the thing is like it's pretty amazing that this 70 year old woman is , you know , such an amazing drummer . Like that shocks people . You know what I'm saying , Cause she gets on and she did like a drummio thing where she played like a Disturb song or a Megadeth song or something . People are like whoa , this is crazy , you know . But she's amazing and watching her do that and seeing , if you scroll around TikTok or something , you'll see people , all sorts of people Young , old , black , white , rich , poor , educated , uneducated , whatever Like figuring out how to be themselves and win something , because the opportunity is just there . And so , for all its faults in social media and the way that digital culture is , there is like a uh , open opportunity .

Lee T. Baker 33:25

If you want to do the work and figure out some stuff about yourself , figure out what you love to do , figure out what makes you you and then just figure out how to do that , you know , in front of a camera , enough that people will care , you know , and man care man . It really is an interesting time

Sustaining Creativity in Modern Church

Lee T. Baker 33:42

. I don't feel aged out , I feel like in the music industry right now . If you just take care of yourself and you have good character and you show up on time and you're nice to people , and it doesn't matter , people don't care . I mean , you got to play , you got to be able to play . But there's a million people who can play . There's less people who can show up on time and be nice . So true .

Justin 34:03

You know what I'm saying , so true .

Lee T. Baker 34:04

And so like I feel like that's a and there's a man . The industry is full of wonderful people , but that's just what I've seen is it's not like what people thought music was in the eighties or nineties and where people were partying and all sorts of stuff . I mean that stuff goes on for sure and it's a good time and all that , whatever , but for the most part man people are out here trying to build . These people's careers are businesses and they're trying to like build a business and they want responsible , respectful , you know , great , talented , encouraging people on the road with them . Bro , we play 40 minutes a night , we're on the RV or whatever 12 hours a day . Like it's way more about the hang .

Rhett 34:43

I love what you said . I want to dive into something real quick that you were saying about . What you're noticing is that people aren't getting aged out in the industry . It's like a fine wine , you know it gets better with age . But what I also noticed you said is you're talking about integrity . You know , showing up on time , being kind . You know , obviously you got to be excellent at what you do . The gift opens the door right . But at the end of the day , if you're not kind , if you're not in this relationally , nobody wants to work with you .

Rhett 35:11

So I'm thinking through the lens of the pastors that are listening , because we've got a diverse audience . We have pastors that are listening that are chomping at the bit to have a creative in their organization or in their church , and not only have a creative in their church , but to have creatives that can create a safe environment , if you will , a development of other creatives . So if you were to speak obviously I feel like you have the equity and the platform to speak on this because of all your years in ministry at a high level , whatever that may mean to some people . But if you were to speak to some leaders and pastors who are trying to reach that audience , reach those creatives . What would you say to them to help them understand how creative things and how to create something for creatives to thrive , so that they can experience all these things within the church and be that expression as the church as well ? Yeah .

Lee T. Baker 36:00

I mean I would first to the creative person . I would say , like you can't ever hold the place that you work hostage to fulfilling all of your like , creative desires . Like , if you're a graphic designer and you work at a design firm , if you're a musician and you work at a church , if you know what I'm saying , if you're a videographer and you work and do corporate education videos , whatever it is , um , I mean , I work for max . I play acoustic guitar is my least favorite like thing . To just sit around and play . I love playing electric guitar , um , but for max , I play acoustic guitar and I love it . I don't need that one gig to satisfy everything I'm doing . I have all these facets and it's my responsibility to go find those facets of expression for myself .

Lee T. Baker 36:50

So first to the creative stop holding the business or the church or whatever you work for , hostage to fulfilling every one of your desires . That's not the purpose of that business or that church . That business has a mission statement . So does the church , your design firm , your whatever , like the artist you play for , whatever it's not about you , and so like , if you want some stuff to be about you , that's fine , but you got to go do that stuff .

Lee T. Baker 37:15

And so , like that's the first thing , the second , uh , I would tell uh leaders , specifically in the church the pace of the modern church is destroying creative people . We traded like program driven ministry from like the nineties for event driven ministry and it's killing creative people , and church leaders are complicit to varying degrees in the downfall of creatives in the church because they can't take their foot off the gas , whether it be for ego or numbers or whatever . And I'm telling you , if you don't take your foot off the gas , god doesn't need you to have 19 events a year . He doesn't need any of that stuff . And so it tends to be like a small circle of creative people , whether it be the designers or the singers , worship leaders , whatever musicians . It's a small amount of people that leadership will trust with these big environments . So they keep inviting the same people in . What happens is you're a hundred percent it's like running a marathon . Or running those four miles that Justin almost died on percent , it's like running a marathon or running those four miles that Justin almost died on .

Lee T. Baker 38:28

You , you , uh , you , uh you get it , you know it .

Lee T. Baker 38:29

It empties the tank and then you have to take a couple of recovery days to get back to where you can run again . That's not being given to most creatives in the church . So then they start thinking 80% is full , then they start thinking 60% is full , then they start thinking 40% is full . And that chasm between 100% and wherever they are is where you make bad decisions , and I could tell you , unfortunately , a hundred stories about terrible decisions because we just want to keep functioning at a pace that we just don't have it . And I'll tell you one of the things I've said this to multiple friends , so if any of my friends are listening , they would confirm .

Lee T. Baker 39:06

One of the reasons I stepped out was I just like Jesus's character still enamors me the difference between being a Christian and believing in something else . For me personally and I have friends who are Buddhist , hindu , atheist , like all over the place , and I respect where they're at For me , why I've chosen to follow Jesus is I don't think that anyone can outlove him . I think that I have the capacity and responsibility to love better than someone who doesn't follow Jesus Now . I don't always do it , but I have that opportunity and capacity because of my relationship with Jesus . The problem is when I was in ministry . I wasn't doing any ministry because I was uninterruptible . The pace was too fast .

Lee T. Baker 39:49

What I loved about the character of Jesus part of it was he was always interrupted . Most of the stories are about him walking through a crowd . He was never with the corporate dudes . He was never with the government guys . He was never with the government guys . He was never with those dudes . He was the most punk rock guy in religion . People would grab his coat and they're like hey , somebody grab my coat and he would stay there and talk .

Lee T. Baker 40:12

I don't know where he was going , but it didn't matter . We don't function like that and so we're just not doing it the the in my opinion and again , I don't work for anybody anymore and it's not a shot at anybody If we felt like we had the opportunity to which you give me the opportunity to tell a leader to slow down . Yeah , it doesn't depend on you , it doesn't depend on your event , it doesn't depend on your ability to speak or whatever , like it just doesn't depend on any of this stuff . We're invited to be a part of something we're not needed , just the pressure of that .

Lee T. Baker 40:47

I'm seeing six or eight friends in my mind's eye right now that I just wish could get a break and they can't bail because they , you know it's a financial thing or it's whatever . But given the opportunity , they would probably bounce too , because they're just exhausted and they're at 40% and they think that's full . And every event has production , every event has music , every event has digital design . Not every event has all these other ministries going on within the church , but every event has those three things . And so those people are at everything and a part of everything and doing everything . And I can say that one I was in it and two .

Lee T. Baker 41:20

I'm on the outside of it now , so if you disagree , with me , that's fine .

Rhett 41:23

No , you don't . You're speaking , look man you know , there's no argument with a person who hasn't experienced . I mean , at the end of the day , you've experienced this for me , I've experienced this and I know we can justify both ends . Love it . I never want to take a shot at the church .

Lee T. Baker 41:36

Again , it's family .

Justin 41:37

I mean , we're not perfect , Well you can tell the way somebody says something . Oh yeah , me and Rhett have this phrase that we say there are no villains , you're not vilifying somebody , no-transcript . But let's look at you real quick . We realized , man , you can actually free up a lot of time that you allow mental congestion and blockage to happen because you didn't have time for your family . You might go to that event and that was the straw that broke the camel's back , but you're not mentioning to your family the two hours that you were like death , scrolling before that and and actually not getting other stuff done .

Justin 42:30

But once I have that talk with somebody and make sure , make are you doing everything on your end . First , what I have found too they are doing their due diligence and they're working towards their self . But I look at something and I'm like this is not scalable to function in life , what you're having to keep up with , the demand , or even the leaders that I'm talking to and they're sharing vision about . We're going to do this , this and this . I listened to them and , because I'm coaching them , they've given me the permission to speak into them . And , lee , I'm in agreement with you . I find that a lot of my words back are you can do that and it's probably going to look really , really pretty and awesome . You're going to get a lot of popularity through this . You're going to kill your team . Just give it time . They're operating off adrenaline right now , and some of them probably medication to keep this up , but eventually you are about to see the downfall of something , and I don't know what that is , but you're heading in a negative direction .

Rhett 43:26

Well , it's evident you've had the right relationships in your life . You've made good choices in that arena , especially had to have made an excellent choice with who you married . I have not met Jacqueline , but I could only imagine that she married . You know , you're uber creative , I'm the creative , and my wife and I've been married 19 , or going on 19 years , uh and and so I'm the creative , I'm the dreamer , I'm like let's go do that .

Rhett 43:48

I don't know how are we going to do it . I don't know , but this is going to happen . You know my wife , you know we kid , but she got the complete opposite of that . Uh , the the ride that we've we've lived , um . But I'm curious is is is your wife more of the practical like rock , and you know you're , you're the role to the rock , you know what I'm saying . But like you balance each other out . So I'm curious how Ms Jacqueline was like okay , well , we're going to take a step from . Okay , here we go . You know , we'll figure

Navigating Transitions in Creative Careers

Rhett 44:16

it out . How was that on her ? Like you know , before and after , pre and post is like oh man , that's the best decision we've ever made . We got more time with our family and that's great . How has that decision impacted your wife and your relationship with your kids ? You know , pre post .

Lee T. Baker 44:39

I think , um , uh , I was talking to my , my mentor , and I had lunch last week and and , um , I feel like and I don't mean this arrogantly because I have so far to go , but I feel like a better husband , a better dad than I've ever been . Um , because I have this bandwidth and even though , you know , we're touring a little bit and traveling a little bit now , learning how to manage that's obviously new to us and so you know , we're we're learning how to do that in the initial decision . You know , obviously , like most people , she loves my wife , loves security and that that decision . You know , obviously , like most people , she loves , my wife loves security and that that paycheck and that health insurance and all that stuff was like a big deal . But she too was just really tired of the same things I was and I think she saw , you know , the , the condition that I was in and it was shocking to her . You know , to just in the beginning , what are we going to do ? Are we going to be able to do this ? You know , whatever .

Lee T. Baker 45:17

And you know , thankfully we've had great mentors throughout our life and so we had margin in areas of our life where we could make that decision and kind of take a step out , like that , um , and she's been super supportive , but you are , she is very opposite . Uh , she's got a marketing degree , she's super smart , she , uh , she works in the mortgage industry now , but she is very ones and zeros , very practical , not super emotional . And I'm super emotional , uh , you know , and I still I , I feel like I'm pretty 50 , 50 , um when it comes to being abstract and being concrete , and I think that's why I work with organizations and businesses and stuff . Well , but like , uh , I don't mind communicating with the executives and I don't mind communicating , you know , with management or the people you know work , the blue collar guys doing the job , you know , or whatever , and so like , um , but yeah , and , and still , to this day , you know , we , we laugh like crazy . Just that we ended up together and we've always .

Lee T. Baker 46:15

it's not something that developed , it's always been like yeah you know , what I'm saying yeah and so she , she doesn't she , you know I got this record coming out you mentioned earlier and the singles are coming out now . Um , astronaut first singles out the night . The second single comes out september 24th and then , uh , a murder . The third single comes out in october . And she's just like dude , the social media stuff like she . I told her you don't have to share anything , you don't have to . Don't feel like it's just overwhelming to her Expose yourself like that and put your emotions out there in front of people in songs and whatever , and so yeah . So that's obviously it was a huge difference , but I mean , she's really grateful too . Again , we didn't leave where the community we're in . We didn't leave the church we're at . We didn't leave where the community we're in .

Justin 47:00

We didn't leave the church we're at , we're just low-key . You make that transition and you talked a little bit about it , but the coaching with MyFi Coaching and that's M-Y-F-I , myfi Coaching what did that look like for you , launching that ? How were you getting clients ? What is that clientele of creatives ? Do you find that some of them , or even people , you find that you're not necessarily counseling but coaching people through some of the very hiccups that you found yourself having to regroup and rediscover about your life place .

Lee T. Baker 47:35

I coached an employee at NASA . I coach right now a lady who leads she's an HR director at a copper wiring firm Obviously , creative people . You know designers , worship pastors , musicians , a guy who works in audio for movies here in Atlanta . You know several churches , nonprofits , stuff like that . So it's kind of all over the place .

Lee T. Baker 47:57

Um , my five the name came from sort of not lo-fi or high five , but my five fidelity is like clarity and faithfulness and so like the idea that you could find , you know , something that helps you find your own clarity so that you can kind of do what you feel like you need to do . And so that's kind of where the name came from . And talking to people about things in my creative journey , I find that I'm not a coach that has like a three steps to like this or four steps that that's all awesome and there's a lot of people killing it doing that sort of thing , and I've learned a lot from people who have more of like a program . Mine is just one-on-one , like reactionary , you know , sort of like bring your problems , bring your goals and let's talk about it .

Lee T. Baker 48:39

I find people who are super inspired , who don't know how to plan and execute and people who know how to plan and execute , who are just not very inspired , and we try to go the route of let's kind of discover who you are like , your , your character , values first , and then let's figure out what your priorities are and then let's figure out what your goals are like inside of that . When I was working at a church in Florida , um , I got invited to serve on the board at um , a college there locally in their music technology program , and I had to give a talk one time and it wasn't like a , you know , a faith-based thing , and so I just talked about character and how creative people are known for like being lazy and disheveled and not on time and you know , all this sort of stuff .

Lee T. Baker 49:24

And so what if our character was kind of opposite that ? So in that talk , humility , integrity and excellence became my life values and I started talking to my kids about those three things , and when they were young they didn't know what those words meant , and so I would teach them humility , integrity , excellence , as help others , tell the truth and do your best , that's so good . And so I got annoyed them with that when they were little , and it's still to this day , because I think it's pretty opposite of what creative people are known for in the world , and so value sort of character driven mentality has always been important to me , and so talking to creatives a little bit less about , like , what they want to make and a little bit more about who they want to be is a great place to start .

Rhett 50:05

That's so good man .

Lee T. Baker 50:06

And then like what's your priorities ? Because you can go make this great thing and it may cause you to step outside of your priorities or your character to go make it . And so if we can figure out a way to figure out who you are and what your priorities are in this framework of your life , well , dude , you can make stuff for a long time , but I've seen creativity break people who don't have a foundation of understanding who they are , and that changes from season to season . For creative people , I think . Maybe not your core values or whatever , but some of your priorities change , you know , throughout your life as your age and changes , and you know you get married or have kids and kids move out or whatever , whatever it is , and so , like you can do different things in your life .

Lee T. Baker 50:44

My kids are older . I wouldn't even be entertaining touring right now if my kids were in elementary school . But , like , my son's going off to college next year and he's doing his thing and my daughter's getting older and you know , um , when your kids are little it's like a ton of work but it's real simple , and when your kids are older , it's not as much work but it's super complex , yes , and so it's like really just like more conversations and all that , so I kind of can be away as long as I FaceTime , you know , stay in contact , all that sort of stuff . So we're we're experimenting with that . I've told my kids both of them , like if you ever raise your hand and go , dad , it's too much , I'll drive home , right then .

Justin 51:19

So good .

Lee T. Baker 51:20

Like , like what , whatever I don't , there's no way I care about anything as much as I care about them . So I'll , I'll bounce right then . Um and so anyway , helping , uh , helping creative people figure that out , and uh , I'm , I'm hoping 2025 is going to be kind of the year I start framing up a book a little bit about that . I've been toying with it for a little while , but I really just want to help creative people and so what that looks like sometimes is talking about their team culture . Sometimes it talks , you know , sometimes it looks like their personal values and talking through the whole process of discovering that it's always different . So it's .

Lee T. Baker 51:56

It's less of a system and more relational , which means my clientele , like I kind of it kind of stays small , like I have a guy I've been coaching for almost five years and clients all over the place , from Brisbane , australia , to Indiana to , you know , cincinnati , florida , you know , all over the place and I and I love every one of them . I don't I'm not super public about it , it's all been like word of mouth because I like it to be relational . I don't know that I would want , like one of my mentors here he's a coach to like huge , huge business people and he sits in his office and he takes seven or eight phone calls a day and just sits in there and he's constantly . I don't know that I could do that pace . I would rather be super close to like 12 to 15 clients , friends , people that's just my makeup . What he does is awesome and he cares about every one of those people and he kills every one of those phone calls because he's freaking brilliant and that's what he does . I'm just not wired like that . So like the coaching side of it is something that I do feel responsible and like I have a gift to help creative people have an ability to do that and I feel responsible to do that . And I see a lot of creative people sort of wandering around and trying to figure out how to accomplish these things that they want to accomplish and be who they want to be and all that sort of stuff . And so you know I would do that forever and then get getting to do that with the credibility of being creative myself .

Lee T. Baker 53:15

Like I'm working on a record , I'm working on an outline for a book , I'm , you know , playing with an artist as well and I'm working on songs and producing stuff for other artists and you know all that sort of stuff . So I'm not speaking like . This is stuff I used to do 20 years ago . Brother , I'm in it with you . You know I'm trying to . I'm trying to live this life too . So , um , anyway , I love the coaching , the podcast . I kind of took a break this summer from the podcast and from a weekly newsletter that I had been doing for a while as well . Not everybody can afford coaching because it's just one-on-one coaching . It's the nature of it always bothered me . You know people can't afford that . So the newsletter and the podcast was just like a free way for me to talk about some stuff and give people something . You know where I can't just go .

Lee T. Baker 54:04

Well , can't afford it , sorry man Like and and ultimately , what I would love to do is for my music career to continue to grow and become such a source of income and lifestyle for me that I can pick six or eight people and just coach them for a year for free , and I don't even have to have that as that part of you know , my income or whatever , because I really would just love to take six or eight creative dudes in the music industry or creative industry or whatever and just help them figure out how to do what they feel like they need to do .

Justin 54:34

Yeah , Well , it's beautiful and you've been doing that in such a you know , maybe not as systematic and I have a name for it , but ever since I've known you you've been doing that . That's just kind of in your nature , who you are . It is definitely your wiring , stepping into MyFi Coaching , which it sounds like man . What a fantastic product , if you will , for someone to really get an idea of who they are and how they can steward really what they're supposed to accomplish here . But what I love with you too and you mentioned it earlier is even the transition you made .

Justin 55:11

You've always been a musician , but really as an artist At this point in your life you've put so much work into your music , but now you're actually releasing an album . And I want to turn our attention to your music , because you've released singles like Astronaut let's Just Wait . Your second single is the Night , and then you had a third one recently released called A Murder , and you've got others that are going to also be a precursor to the release of your album , Stone Tiger , on December 6 , 2024 . So first of all , man , I'm inspired by you even just getting to hear this whole conversation , but especially just as you've taken on this project and getting vulnerable and putting yourself out there . But what can we expect from these songs ? And really , what inspired you to say now's the time , what gave you most importantly , the agency to actually say I'm now going to put in the time , the effort , the resources to actually see this project now completed .

Exploring Artistic Transitions in Music

Lee T. Baker 56:09

So when I did leave my job , I started like looking around the music industry to go like what opportunity is out there ? Because the landscape had changed , you know , tremendously , and even post COVID changed and all that . And so I had some friends . I have one of my best friends here . He's been one of my biggest cheerleaders and encouragers and everything . His name's Nick and he . He went to Berkeley . He's been in film composition his whole life and they had just finished their first full length feature film and then he , you know , does all sorts of incredible , super impressive musical things . And then he , you know , does all sorts of incredible , super impressive musical things . And , uh , he , you know , working in film , just watching him , learning from him . He's been a resource for me to like just relearning things .

Lee T. Baker 56:48

I used to mix records a lot and just haven't in years . I used to produce and just haven't years . Obviously , technology changed , all that's changed . So having a guy like him and my friend Ronnie who mixed my record as well , like as a resource was great and I started , you know , dabbling in the sync licensing world , which is , if you don't know what that is , it's just like a music sync to video of anything . So the music you hear on TV or films or whatever . And so I signed on with a company in New York . I actually spent about six months making 10 pieces of music and mixed them myself and everything and then took those 10 pieces of music , talked to three different sync licensing companies , signed on with a company in New York and started just producing like 90 second two minute instrumental pieces for like if you're watching like CBS football , you know whatever they throw to commercial and there's just like a riff or something . It was that kind of stuff . So I'd have to turn in like you know , a dozen versions of like a 92nd piece of music .

Lee T. Baker 57:43

Working on all that , I really fell in love with the melding of these two worlds . I love , I love Americana singer , songwriter music Um , it's very trustworthy to me . That alt country uh , wilco , Lucinda Williams , butch Walker type stuff , uh , springsteen , you know that , that vibe . But I've always loved synth music too , like 80s stuff , um , you know synth wave type stuff , and even modern , like indie pop stuff . And so I was like I want to put these two worlds together and in TV music there's really no boundaries , it's just like they have to find the show or the transition that fits what you've made and so , uh , so you can kind of do whatever you want . So it like was a great experimental playground for me to figure out that sound . Um , and it really is like an electronic Americana thing . Uh , I've told people I call it electricana .

Rhett 58:35

You heard that here is coined here on authentic . Yeah , let's go . Yeah , it's like this melding of those two worlds where it's like sent synth country .

Lee T. Baker 58:44

It's like it . I'm from louisiana , dude I . I speak the way I speak . You know what I'm saying . I'm not gonna like yeah sing differently , you know whatever . So it's like this redneck accent over these juno synths and stuff I love it , let's go and so , anyway , so I started um writing in 2023 .

Lee T. Baker 59:00

I wrote like 40 , 50 songs , maybe a little more than that , narrowed it down , started tracking in the beginning of this year and my goal really was just the way that sync licensing works is you kind of have to have an artist persona and , like start to build a fan base , um , and it just that's the way it works . And I had been invited to a couple of songwriting festivals , but I didn't have anything of my own . I had been working on stuff for other people , but I didn't have songs of my own and I like really wanted to go play these festivals and network with other songwriters and just share something . And then , so that was kind of the practical , musical side of things .

Lee T. Baker 59:32

I did have all of these instances and obviously I had been through a huge transition in my life and there were just , you know , emotions and ideas and things I wanted to express that were piling up . And so , as I was writing , I noticed , like a thread , there's this Chinese concept um , you probably heard of a paper tiger . It's like somebody who pretends to be strong but they're really not , and and so stone tiger is sort of the opposite of that and having to like be as strong as you seem , uh , in a lot of instances of life , and so they're obviously like astronauts . A song about having the courage , uh to to take that step that I did , uh , and all the complexities in my relationships and marriage and life and stuff that came along with it . Um , the night is a song . That's about that anxiety that keeps you up and what it robs you of and the things you really want . You know , um , in your life and you know the dumb stuff . Like you're laying in bed and you're like , dude , am I saving enough for retirement ?

Rhett 1:00:29

You're like that's not dumb stuff . Yeah , I hear you , man , I get it .

Lee T. Baker 1:00:32

It's like and then six months ago I said something to Justin and he hates me , you know . It's like he hadn't called me back . Yeah , it's like stuff like that . You know , you're like overthinking all that sort of stuff and then a murder .

Lee T. Baker 1:00:50

Some people know this , but like it's not about an actual murder . A murder is like a group of crows it's what we call like a group of crows on , like a telephone line , and so that song is actually . Each verse is about a different group of friends in my life and what they've meant to me and just the strength that they provided me and that sort of thing . And so all the songs have this sort of thread of having to figure out how to be strong in different instances or appreciate that strength throughout the season of my life . And so I'm excited the records it'll be out on vinyl and obviously all the streaming stuff and all that . And I won't play out a ton . I'm going to do some vinyl , some record shop in stores and things like that and I'll do some live streams and you know things . But the goal really isn't to tour this record , it's . It's really just to share the songs and hopefully for these songs to end up getting shared on TV film , you know type stuff .

Lee T. Baker 1:01:42

And honestly , for me it was just therapeutic to to make a make a record . And I had friends uh , my friends Jonathan and Timmy came alongside and were just killed . All the artwork my friend Alex actually did the cover for the night , the second single , uh . And so , like I just had all these friends who were like , yeah , you should totally do this . And every step they were like , bro , this is awesome . And just this constant source of encouragement when you're like I'm 44 or 45 minutes is stupid . What am I doing ? You know , and you know because every artist goes through that the cycle of like this is going to be awesome and then you do it .

Rhett 1:02:14

it's like this is terrible and then it's like it's reality right there yeah you know it's like no , this is terrible .

Lee T. Baker 1:02:21

No , I'm terrible . No , like you know , you just go through this , so it's still . I don't care how old you are , yeah , how many records you've made , like you're just making art and it is exposes a vulnerability in you and it's always scary . And I posted the artwork last night and it was being recorded a couple weeks before . But I posted the artwork to one of the singles last night on , uh , social media and I'm like , oh man , people are going to hear this clip and they're going to think this course , I should have rewritten that line . That's not , you know , I'm like thank you for the authenticity on that .

Rhett 1:02:51

That could be a whole nother podcast in the future , man because that is it's authentic , it's it's real , it's a place . I mean that's every creative's nightmare . But at the , I mean you're putting your heart out there .

Lee T. Baker 1:03:02

Yeah , and I'm confident in it . Dude , I love the record . I'm super proud of it . I don't care how many streams it gets , I just love the record .

Jeff Roberts 1:03:08

I'm super glad I did it .

Lee T. Baker 1:03:09

I'm glad that you guys are giving me a forum to talk about it . It's great Hopefully encourage other people to go make stuff .

Justin 1:03:15

Heck , yeah man .

Lee T. Baker 1:03:16

The world just needs art man .

Justin 1:03:18

Come on All the way .

Rhett 1:03:25

And everybody's so unique and the world needs know to get out there .

Lee T. Baker 1:03:30

I love that . That's such a great line . The world needs art .

Rhett 1:03:31

You better believe it . So your art , yeah , yeah . So Lee T Baker got to put the T in there . By the way , I'm doing that on purpose when can people find you ? Online socials website ? Where can ? Where can they find you ?

Lee T. Baker 1:03:41

Yeah , Ironically , Lee T Baker everywhere at Lee T Baker Instagram , Twitter , Tik TOK , all this stuff . And then LeeTBakercom Um yeah , Follow on Instagram , that's probably where I'm most active . Follow on Spotify , follow on Apple music all that good stuff . Or , or , if you're the one of the four people that listen to Amazon music , they're one of the four people . Yeah , I know , I have one friend , he like , he's like hardcore Amazon music . I'm like bro .

Rhett 1:04:08

I don't even know how they're still doing this . Yeah , I know it's so funny .

Lee T. Baker 1:04:12

I'm going to get like a letter or something .

Rhett 1:04:14

Yeah .

Lee T. Baker 1:04:17

No , they don't care about me . My two streams on Amazon . Did you hear what Lee ?

Justin 1:04:21

T Baker said about you Amazon .

Lee T. Baker 1:04:23

Yeah , they don't care . We're going to have to edit that out because Amazon is one of our sponsors . So we love Amazon , jeff Bezos . We need to be honest about how many people we're using .

Rhett 1:04:39

We're trying to get the algorithm to set this up . Amazon , amazon . It's amazing . Amazon's awesome Amazon podcast .

Lee T. Baker 1:04:53

Yeah , please follow along . We'd love to connect and I love chatting with people about art and music and all that sort of stuff too . There's a I have a link in my bio somewhere on some probably on all the services . There was a playlist that I created that was the inspiration for the production of the record . So there's there's all kinds of crazy music in there . If you care about that sort of thing and just want a fresh playlist to to jam out to , uh , it's in my bio and all that stuff , and so that was super fun to make too . And then I spent two months just listening to that playlist before I actually started working on the record . The songs were written but just not produced , and so it was really cool to listen back now and go , oh yeah , that had a heavy influence on this song or you know whatever . So anyway , but yeah , I appreciate you guys , man , thanks for thanks for having me on .

Justin 1:05:31

Man Lee , I mean this conversation was rich . Thank you so much , seriously , for going in some of the places you say you haven't really ventured to verbalize yet that's going to be so impactful to so many people listening . Just a privilege to have you on the podcast today . Yeah , I appreciate it fellas yeah .

Justin 1:05:49

And for everybody listening , go check out all of Lee's release singles . Set your calendar for Lee's first album called Stone Tiger . It releases December 6 , 2024 . Also , be sure to check out Lee's MyFi podcast . Once again , that is M-Y-F-I podcast . You can stream it on Apple and Spotify or LeeTBakercom .

Rhett 1:06:14

Lee , it's great having you . Good to meet you for the first time , man , looking forward to hopefully a part two at some point in the future , man .

Lee T. Baker 1:06:20

Yeah , same man . Thank you guys for having me .

Justin 1:06:23

On the next

E38 Teaser: Jeff Roberts | Yellowhammer Coffee

Justin 1:06:24

episode of Armchair Alpinic , a conversation with entrepreneur and owner of Yellowhammer Coffee , Jeff Roberts .

Jeff Roberts 1:06:31

The dream was really always just a passion for people . People are really our heart and so how do we do something on the people side ? I did have a background with Starbucks , so I'd seen that community that you can build around coffee . So I love just the team building side and the leadership side .

Jeff Roberts 1:06:46

I never loved anywhere I was , so I was like , man , is there a place we could be ? That would just , that would be healthier than what I've experienced . Is that even possible ? Like , can that exist ? So I had that churning in the background . I've got this food truck idea doing it with coffee churning in the background and it basically just kind of the discomfort of where I was in my life drove me to make a step to say you know what it's going to be now or never . I think what I did was I hedged against a regret . At the end of the day I didn't want to look back and say , man , you should have just tried that idea . And so that was kind of what we did with the idea of can we do something healthy , can we make this healthy culture , and can we try this crazy coffee idea and can we put those two together .

Justin 1:07:27

Hey guys , we're really looking forward to that conversation , but in the meantime ,

Reach Out To Us: Info@ArmchairAuthentic.com

Justin 1:07:38

we'd love to hear from you . You can email us at info at armchairauthenticcom . Have a great day .