Episode 308: The Power of Listening to Conscious Music with Drew Mcmanus

Hal Elrod: Right, Drew. What’s going on, brother?

 

Drew McManus: I’m doing good. How are you?

 

Hal Elrod: I’m excited. I’ve been listening to Satsang all morning as I mentioned just getting ready for our conversation. I’m looking forward to this, man. I was introduced to your music probably three, four, maybe five months ago by my friend, Josh Eidenberg and Brianna Greenspan, who I may be connected with them. And then I found out one of my other favorite musicians, brotha James, that you’re one of his favorite influences in his career. And so, yeah, small world and I listened to you in the car with my kids on the way to school like you become a big part of our lives, man, so this is really special for me to have you on.

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. I’m excited too. It’s funny how stuff works out because the two folks that you work with, they came up to me at Wanderlust and brought you up. I had heard of Miracle Morning, but I wasn’t fully aware of you. And there’s a guy that I trained with, this is my boxing coach, and he is in love with your stuff and has read all of your books. So, he was like beside himself when I told him that we were going to link on stuff so it’s pretty funny.

 

Hal Elrod: Yeah. Again, it’s such a small world, man. That’s wild. Really cool. So, yeah, I want to just get to know. You and I are getting to know each other for the first time here. I want to kind of understand the evolution because what I love about your music is like most music I listened to, I listened to for the sound, right? I’m guilty of not knowing what a song is about. I’m like, “Dude, I love this song. It’s got a great beat. It’s got a great set.” And then I’m like, “I don’t even know what they’re singing about.” I know in my heart but I don’t know what they’re singing about. And your music, I feel like when I listen to your music, I’m in a meditation session or I’m in the midst of a spiritual guru. And it challenges me, it inspires me to think deeper to expand my own consciousness to feel more love and more gratitude, all of that. And the way that I would if I were labeling, I would call you a conscious musician. Is that fair to say? How do you resonate with that?

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. For me, it’s always an honor when anyone says that because I grew up listening to conscious punk rock and conscious hip hop. So, yeah, I know I really love that term. I love when people call it conscious music because that’s all of the stuff that I have always drawn a lot of inspiration from. That’s always what I’ve called that. So, yeah, I love that.

 

Hal Elrod: Yeah. It wasn’t until much later in life that I started to listen to conscious music. Because I listen to Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre and Eazy-E. Yeah, a lot of Eazy-E, right? Not the most conscious musician. So, I was all into the beats and then now actually carrying weight. “Hey, what are the words that are going into my subconscious as I listen to this music?” So, how did you get started in music in general? 

 

Drew McManus: I started playing the guitar when I was in middle school, and always kind of knew I wanted to play music, especially as I started picking it up. And then I would say bye high school. I knew it was what I wanted to do. I didn’t know how I was going to do it but I did a real good job of telling everyone that that’s what I was going to do and telling teachers that that’s what I was going to do so I didn’t need what they were trying to tell me. But really, I feel like I struggled a lot with addiction. And I think after I got a handle on that, I kind of steered away from music for a while and got really into being outside. When I moved back from Chicago to Montana, fly fishing and skiing and rock climbing and ice climbing was kind of my thing, my step away from music. I still played not out though. I just kind of would play at the end of the day a little bit. 

 

Hal Elrod: And that was what age that you felt like you got to hold the addiction and then kind of got back into nature?

 

Drew McManus: I would say 23 was when I came back to Montana. So, I still kind of played at night and really just listened into different stuff than I’d ever listened to before. I used to pretty much only listen to punk rock or hip hop.

 

Hal Elrod: Yeah.

 

Drew McManus: And getting back into folk music and stuff that I loved really early on in my life. But really, when I went to Nepal was when I started writing stuff that I was like, “Oh man, this might be…” because I didn’t have a guitar with me. So, I was kind of writing things like in poem format and being like, “Okay. Well, hopefully, I’ll turn these into songs,” and that was pretty much the whole record, The Story Of You. That’s why I put the Yantra on the front and all that because most of those songs were written when I was in Nepal or soon after I got back.

 

Hal Elrod: So, in fact, I’m going to put you on the spot or I’m just going to read this. I was listening to your music this morning and there’s so many lyrics that stand out for me. Just for our listeners, I want to read the chorus of Grow because to me, this is the epitome of, you know, for me, if I just sum up your music, like this chorus just speaks to my soul. And to me, it sums up the type of energy and love that you put into every word that you sing. And it goes like this, and I’m not going to sing it, “Keep singing my songs, giving thanks and praise, letting it be heard that I’m grateful for these days. There is not a man alive who can make me feel poor because what I’ve got is worth much more. I’ve got air and water and love and friends that I’m certain were gifted from above. And everything that’s new to me is an opportunity so I’m going to grow, grow, grow, and you can grow too.” And for me that it’s inclusive, right? Like you bring me into the song. I can grow too. Me and my son, you know, he rocked out to that song on the way to school almost every single day.

 

Drew McManus: That’s awesome. 

 

Hal Elrod: Yeah, and that’s probably my favorite of your songs, beautiful days. I’m looking at my playlist on my phone. My Satsang favorites playlist. Do you have a favorite of your songs or a favorite lyric or a favorite message? I’m just curious and I know it’s hard to probably pick. 

 

Drew McManus: I always come back to So Far as being my favorite song of mine.

 

Hal Elrod: I need to find that. I don’t know if I’ve got them on my playlist.

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. That’s probably my favorite one that I’ve ever written just because it’s the only song that I’ve written. I wrote the first half of it in one-time period and the next half a year-and-a-half later and so much happened in between. So, it’s a really important story.

 

Hal Elrod: What’s that song about? 

 

Drew McManus: So, we had got asked to go on tour with Michael Franti. I had taken this huge gamble where I lost a bunch of money to go play these few shows with Michael Franti in Florida. And what I told myself was hopefully he’s going to listen to the band and like the band and want to take us on the road. And that’s what happened. We played those three shows with him and then we got to go on tour with him for almost a full year. And the first verse was written kind of at the beginning of that of just like, okay, the plan is in place. It’s about to happen. Everything’s real. Let’s go get it. We got to work. So, I went through this time period, where I was just saying yes to every single thing that came across the table. You know, and we worked way too much for about two years. I just kind of rowed too hard and in the fall of 2017, I had this kind of moderate breakdown. 

 

An agent that had sat with me and my family said that they were lifetime careers and that they were with us had dropped us. A band member had quit. Essentially, this whole process it had just crushed us. So, I started questioning whether I was going to do it or not. I had a son on the way and I took this huge chunk of time off, way more time off then was sensible. And when we came back, I was really scared because I thought we had lost all this momentum and the agent had dropped us so we self-booked this tour and sold out almost all of the shows on that tour. And then the second verse was written at the end of that tour. So, it kind of tells the tale of like the excitement of this come up and like, “Oh my gosh, what’s happening? This is so cool.” And then super depressed, almost lost my family because of how much I was working, and then kind of started, you know, trying to restore some balance. And then when I came back to touring into the music, it was better than ever.

 

Hal Elrod: That’s incredible. That’s inspiring for me because I can relate to that kind of going through achieving this level of success and then kind of finding that you’ve dug yourself a hole and now it’s impacting your health or your family or your relationships or your sanity.

 

Drew McManus: All of those. All of those.

 

Hal Elrod: All of those. Yeah. I’m kind of in the midst of that right now and trying to figure it out. So, yeah, man, I really, really appreciate you sharing that. On that note, most of your songs or your lyrics, right? If I had to describe or what I’ve already shared with just today, really positive, really uplifting, really beautiful, soulful songs about love and gratitude, songs like grow and beautiful days and these but you also do not shy away from seeing about controversial issues like things that you are passionate about, the state of the world, even politics like I’ve heard you, you know, sometimes it was in a song. Like when I first discovered music, I’m like, “Wow, this is beautiful love gratitude.” I’m like, “Whoa. Damn. He’s not afraid to speak his mind.” 

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. 

 

Hal Elrod: So, I’d love to hear about that, like in terms of your artistic, is it just like this is what’s on my heart so it’s pouring through the paper as I’m writing the lyrics? Is there an element of you wanting to use your voice and your music to make an impact for the listener? Is it both? Is it neither? Well, I’d love to just hear you speak on that on kind of the balance between writing really uplifting, grateful songs and then also writing songs that are really kind of, hey, like that were being taken advantage of or whatever it is.

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. Both because it is whatever comes up is kind of what I let come out. You know, for me, I see like, A, I have this intense gratitude for waking up because my life didn’t used to be good. You know, it was pretty sad. The first half of my life was pretty rough. First three-quarters of my life was pretty rough. So, once I got sober and again, got outside and kind of like got this lust for life back and when you lose people on a kind of regular basis as you do when you’re an addict, you kind of have this invigorated take on the world around you of just how magic every single moment can be if you’re there for it. Being present is something I struggle with a lot. And in my music and the things that I find a lot of joy in is typically things that kind of forced me to be present. But, yeah, I do. I have an immense gratitude for life but that doesn’t take away from, you know, we have to be critical of things when they don’t have the humaneness of other human beings in mind. 

 

I see a lot of leadership just in our country of people that don’t have characteristics that I would necessarily associate with a leader. It’s kind of this pipeline of the same type of person that puts in charge. And there’s kind of this disengagement and dehumanization of people that they don’t live where we live or even just live how we live. And I think there’s just a responsibility if we’re going to talk about oneness in this great magical energy that we’re all kind of a part of, do we also have to kind of point at people that want to destroy that concept and separate us and divide us and destroy things for gain. I think we just have a responsibility to talk about that too because it’s a valid part of the conversation.

 

Hal Elrod: Yeah. I don’t know if you follow India Arie on Instagram.

 

Drew McManus: I don’t but I love her music.

 

Hal Elrod: Yeah. I would follow her. She recorded a video the other day that really spoke to me. I’ve been feeling a lot of stress over just and I think, I mean, just knowing you and your music and what you just said, I’d imagine that most conscious people are feeling it which is the state of the world, the state of politics, the state of the planet, all of these things. And she shared a video and just said, “Hey, this has been on my heart,” and it was kind of I’ve been singing for decades about, hey, if we just stand together and we unite, we can shift the planet,” and this and that and she just started crying and she’s like, “I don’t know anymore if that’s true.” You know, I don’t know if we, right, like there’s too many forces that are beyond our control. Anyway, yeah, based on what you’re just saying, yeah, I mean, I don’t know where I’m going with that. I just kind of…

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. I like that. Yeah, it’s hard. You know, the one thing that I’ve always had and maybe it’s just from the gradual incline of my human experience thus far, I just have hope, though. And I think something else I know you travel all the time, this kind of this narrative that the South is one way or Texas is one way or Montana and Wyoming are one way and really what I find the more I travel is that for being crammed on this rock flying through space, we actually get along pretty damn well. And that that narrative that’s super separating, like I have friends that I know don’t share the same political beliefs as me. But we love our kids. We respect each other and we go through the world with a general sense of how we’re walking, you know, and try not to stomp on everything we walk by. And I think that’s the case more across the board than not. So, there’s hope for me, I believe. I believe that it will all come out in the wash. Even if it’s a forceful thing, but I think we’ll get back to where we need to get.

 

Hal Elrod: Good. Good. I’m really glad to hear that. I’m really glad to hear you say that. And I feel the same way. There’s kind of an unwavering faith that the universe, everything, the yin and yang, it all balances itself out. And usually, whether I think in the east, they called the dark soul of the night, I think that’s what you call it, which is individuals go through that and I think maybe collectively as a species, we’re going through that right now.

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. I think there’s a thing that doesn’t get talked about though, is like especially in like the field that you’re in, I think people wanting to radically self-improve is at an all-time high. I think people wanting to be educated on things that don’t directly affect them is at an all-time high. It’s becoming, just in the music industry, I see this growing thing of young people that going to festivals and stuff like that, that are like we don’t drink or do drugs when we go to festivals. We’re like totally here to have authentic connections with people and enjoy music. You know, it’s becoming cool not to drink anymore. It’s becoming cool to exercise. It’s becoming cool to read again, like, we’re on the right track. And the more people that know is the more people that know, you know?

 

Hal Elrod: Yeah. I love that. I’m so glad. I hesitated. That just kind of came up, that India Arie video because it was a little bit of depressing kind of are we hopeful to…

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. I totally get how someone would feel like that though and I totally see it as a valid feeling.

 

Hal Elrod: Yeah, man. Well, I appreciate you shining some light and some hope because you’re right, I mean, at the individual level and the collective because it’s the individual and the collective goes hand-in-hand, I think you’re absolutely right. More people are waking up, more people are like we are elevating consciousness like that’s my mission and in this lifetime is to elevate the consciousness of humanity in any way that I can and I think you’re doing that with your music and like you said, we travel a lot, we see a lot of people and you see that wow the majority or the majority but more and more and more people are waking up and that is a beautiful thing. You mentioned your kids. Is it just the one son or do you have more than one?

 

Drew McManus: No. So, I have three step-kids that I’ve been with for 10 years. 

 

Hal Elrod: Oh, wow. 

 

Drew McManus: You know, they’re my kids. And so, we have Chloe, who is 13. Colden is 15. Kayden is 19. And then the baby Malakai is 21 months.

 

Hal Elrod: Beautiful. I’m looking at I think on Instagram right here. What a gorgeous blonde boy with a huge smile and blue eyes as well.

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. He’s a cutie, man. He’s full of personality. Actually, right before we started the podcast, this kind of magical thing happened. He’s a total mama’s boy but during this holiday season, I’ve actually been spending a whole bunch of time with him because Summer has been tending to some family stuff. And this morning, he reached from his mom’s arms to come to me. When we woke him up, we went to the crib, and he reached for me, not mom. And I got the, you know. 

 

Hal Elrod: Those are huge dad moments, man.

 

Drew McManus: A huge moment. Yeah. Onto my wife like, “Is this real right now?”

 

Hal Elrod: That’s amazing, man. 

 

Drew McManus: Yes. So, I’m having a good morning. 

 

Hal Elrod: Yeah. That’s great. You know, I similar to you, you’re on the road like I love Macklemore’s line. He’s like, you know, when he had his first child, he did that song. I think it was Growing Up or something like that and he said, “I’ve got a world to sing to and you at the same time.” 

 

Drew McManus: Truth. 

 

Hal Elrod: Right? 

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. 

 

Hal Elrod: And I so resonate with that line because I’m like, “Man, I’ve got a world to inspire and you guys at the same time,” and like reconciling that and balancing that. And I’ll just bear with you, for me, if this is of any value to you, but I had a real breakthrough. You know, I have cancer a few years ago, and that’s led to a lot of breakthroughs and I’m still kind of dealing with that and going through chemo and such. But, yeah, the realization recently, though, was that I had been believing a lie or telling myself a lie and believing it that I’m on this planet to change the world and to impact millions of lives and I had somehow placed a higher value on that than the impact I’d make with my family.

 

Drew McManus: Oh, bro. Yeah. You’re speaking my language.

 

Hal Elrod: You get it, right? Yeah. I got a world to sing to and you at the same time and then just recently it was this radical paradigm shift. It was in a meditation, you know, divinity, God, higher consciousness moment where it’s like there’s more value in the impact that you make for those three people at home than in the million people that you make. And if you think about the relatively shallow impact, I might change their life but it can’t come close to the impact that I’m making at home. And so, that for me was I decided I’m kind of taking this year off like I’m still speaking, I’m still doing some stuff but cut way back on all of that to really like go hardcore radically into like, dude, I am here. My kids are only around for so many more years before they’re moving out probably. Yeah, and the world will be waiting. You know what I mean? The world would be waiting. 

 

Drew McManus: Man, I relate to that so, so much. You know, I just said no to – we had a fairly big opportunity come on the table but it would have just made me away from home for almost three months. And I said no to it and yeah, similarly, we just lost my mother-in-law. While she was on hospice, she was surrounded by so many people at her house. Every day was like a party over there of people wanting to see her and it kind of hit me this like this is success. This is what success means. You know, if this is what your last little chunk of time looks like, if you’re surrounded by this many people that genuinely love you, you know, they want to sit by your side that’s magic. But I turned down this opportunity because I was just thinking that same thing. You know, my son is only going to be this age once and that, yeah, that being present for that is just more important than playing more shows. We’re always going to play shows. There’s always going to be another show, lots of them. And that if I’m going to do this forever that I have to kind of do it my way and that I can’t just fully disregard my people anymore because it’s just not healthy for anybody, me included. 

 

Hal Elrod: Yeah. You know, one of my distinctions around that was like every day that I’m on the road inspiring an audience, I’m not at home inspiring my kids, right? 

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. But it’s a catch-22 too because there’s like this weird, you know, for me, I’ve always had this I take it as a great responsibility that people were listening now and we’re not even close. What I see in my future is so big but even where we’re at right now, 200 to 400 or 500 people if we’re lucky and more in the summer, but I see it is a great responsibility because I think it’s so rare that God chooses people to speak and to have a platform to say something. So, I think it’s a great honor and I’m kind of the guy that I can barely let someone work on my damn car because I’m like, “Well, I might be able to just do it better.” Being that I have actually suck at working on cars but, you know, I think just having the blessing of getting to be one of the chosen people that has some sort of skill set or whatever to change people’s lives, you know, it’s a hard thing because that’s magic.

 

Hal Elrod: Yeah. And that’s why I think it’s not an all or nothing but a balance and I think that you’ve probably been there right where you’re like you get so into the career that you go like too far, right? 

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. 

 

Hal Elrod: It was holding back and being like, “All right.” Instead of like, for me, it was instead of speaking four times a month, I’m going to max it out at two. So, it’s not that I won’t go influence people but I’m going to be at home more often. 

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. For me, what kind of made me nuts was the just perpetual being gone and now, yeah, I kind of have a rule now that tours have to be right around three weeks and then I have to have the equal amount of time at home before I can leave again and then I’ve been taking the entire winters off so I take pretty much thanksgiving to the end of March off every year. 

 

Hal Elrod: Oh nice. That’s awesome. What are some your other passions? I know that you are a combat sports athlete in the mixed martial arts. That was a huge, you know, I’m a fan so I don’t get in the cage but how did you get into that? I guess I got to ask you two questions. How’d you get into that? And are you looking forward to the Conor-Cowboy fight this weekend?

 

Drew McManus: Yes. You know, I grew up wrestling and I kind of said forever, you know, there’s an MMA gym that’s very, very well known here called the Grindhouse. And I always knew I wanted to train there but when I kind of freaked out on the fall of 2017 I was like, okay, well I’m going to go in there and start boxing again. I want to get proficient in it again and about my second day hanging out there, I was watching everyone grapple and the owner, Will Grundhauser, was like, “Just roll with me, man. Just try to roll with me. You know, you grew up wrestling. There’s got to be some carryover.” And in my head, I was like, “Yeah, I wrestled forever. I’ll probably be all right at this.” 

 

No, I wasn’t all right at it at all. I was absolutely manhandled and I had no idea what was going on. Kind of how my brain works is I immediately was like, “Oh my god, I must learn this.” So, I just kind of got obsessed with jujitsu and then was still boxing a little bit every time I went in and it just did something to me, man. It opened up this huge chunk of my heart that I was missing. You know, I didn’t know how much I needed it until I started doing it.

 

Hal Elrod: Can you expand on that? How did it open up a chunk of your heart? What do you mean by that? Because I’m listening. It’s like, wait, so fighting, it opened up your heart.

 

Drew McManus: No, man. And I know it sounds weird, especially to a lot of our fans. So, there’s something, A, I always call this consciousness at gunpoint. I think it’s the same thing that draws people to rock climbing or intense skiing or ice climbing or any of those activities is there’s this level of presence that has to occur for it to go successfully. And if you’re like me, where you’re really a scatterbrain person, mindfulness has to come with some consequences. Like, if you’re not present, then there will be a consequence for your lack of mindfulness. And I think that’s a part of it is that I really, really liked the focus that I have when I’m doing it. There’s nothing else in my mind except what I’m doing. And then also, I think there’s a really primal thing that’s fed in combat that’s in our DNA that was just kind of been forgotten about. It’s the same reason why people that have no interest in any sort of violence whatsoever still love to watch fights. 

 

Hal Elrod: Yeah, yeah. Like me, like I’m anti-violence, but I’m like, yeah.

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. It’s a game, you know. It’s just a game and everyone here is consenting to the game and wants to play it and it’s really fun. You know, and for me too I think there’s this level of that my journey with martial arts is mine. It’s not my wife’s. It’s not my kids. It’s not any of my fans. It’s not my managers, my agents, my bandmates. It’s just mine. 

 

Hal Elrod: Just you, your opponent. Yeah. 

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. And a lot of times the opponent as myself is just to get, you know, can I do better, last longer than I did the day before? And I think the fact that it’s, you know, it’s really become my spiritual practice. It’s I figure a lot out about myself when I do it and how I handle discomfort and how I can come back from an injury but a lot of it is like I said so much of it is that it’s just mine, that it’s just mine. And the Grindhouse and Will, Will has become one of my best friends and I definitely think it was fate that I went in there and that place is just had the impact on me that it has, and some of my coolest friendships are from that place. There’s also a kind of a sense of community when you train and I can go anywhere in the country and be welcomed by different people in that that fighting community.

 

Hal Elrod: Beautiful. Beautiful, man. Well, what’s next for you? I know you guys are going on tour. How can people make it out to your tour? Where are you guys touring? I’d love to understand. 

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. So, SatsangMovement.com has all of the tour dates listed. We’re getting ready to announce the second half of the tour next Monday. But the shows we have announced now we play in Denver at the end of February but then when we start the tour, we’re doing all over the Pacific Northwest, the West Coast so I hit like the Bay, LA, San Diego. And then Colorado and then in April and May we’ll hit the Midwest and East Coast. So, all the tour dates by next Monday will be announced.

 

Hal Elrod: SatsangMovement.com? 

 

Drew McManus: Yep. 

 

Hal Elrod: Okay. And then where can people listen to the music because, obviously, I don’t want anybody have to wait until they see you in concert to start getting your brilliance, your soulful lyrics into their soul.

 

Drew McManus: Anywhere you can listen to music, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, all that stuff.

 

Hal Elrod: Everywhere. Yeah, I get it on iTunes and I just saw you guys Spotify, 6.6 million streams on Spotify and 3 million just for your song, I Am. Congrats on that, man.

 

Drew McManus: Yeah, last year pretty crazy.

 

Hal Elrod: Yeah. That’s incredible, man. You’re making a huge difference. Well, any last thoughts before we wrap up? 

 

Drew McManus: No, man. I appreciate what you’re doing. It’s good for me to hear that I’m not the only person that struggles with trying to find that balance of travel, work, and family.

 

Hal Elrod: Yeah. I’m with you. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, man, Drew, I’m so grateful for you, again, your music. Keep doing what you’re doing. It’s making a huge difference in my life. And I can only imagine countless others and I hope that every person on listening to this today is tuning into Satsang on wherever you listen to your music. So, Drew, man, I look forward to meeting you in person at some point and rolling on the mat with you at some point.

 

Drew McManus: All right.

 

Hal Elrod: All right brother. I’ll talk to you soon. Thanks so much. 

 

Drew McManus: Yeah. Talk to you, man. Take care. 

 

[CLOSING]

 

Hal Elrod: All right, goal achievers, thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Achieve Your Goals Podcast. That was Drew McManus, the lead singer of one of my favorites, if not my favorite band, Satsang. And again, you get the tour dates at SatsangMovement.com and listen to their music wherever music is played. I love you, guys and gals. Thank you so much for listening today and I will talk to you all next week.

 

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