Welcome to Takin’ A Walk
Join Host Buzz Knight for an Audio Diary of insightful conversation with interesting people who show their love of music.
Latest Podcasts
Brent Smith from the Rock Band Shinedown
Speaker 1:Takin' A Walk.Buzz Knight:When I was growing up, I never really focused on a plan B. And I know
Takin A Walk Celebrates Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
Speaker 1:Takin' A Walk.Joel Selvin: Author and Music Critic:What was happening on stage was that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Steve Hackett: Former Guitarist with the band Genesis
Speaker 1:Takin' a walk.Steve Hackett:I can't teach anyone how to write a song because if a song really, really works,
Trevor Rabin: Musician, Songwriter, Film Score Composer
Trevor Rabin:I have to say, well, the guitar was always something, even though I was a pianist and I played
Matt Stell: Country Music Singer/Songwriter
Taking a Walk. You know, now that I've been writing songs for a long time and lucky to get to do it all the time, But to actually write a song, It's kind of like building a house. You know, you got to know how to swing a hammer and how to square corners.00:00:18AnnouncerYou've arrived at the Taking a Walk Podcast, an audio diary of music storytelling. Today, your host Buzz Knight talks with record Labels Country singer songwriter Matt Stell. Rolling Stone named his song Prayed for You in twenty nineteen one of the ten best Country Songs to Hear. Now, he's releasing new music, and he talks about his songwriting process and much more on Taking a Walk.00:00:43Buzz KnightWell, Matt Stell, Welcome to the Taking a Walk Virtual Podcast.00:00:48Matt StellMan, I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me.00:00:51Buzz KnightSo tell me what's going on these days. I know you're back in Nashville after doing some road warrior work, right?00:00:58Matt Stellyeah, Man, we are still on the road quite a bit. We'll leave out again tomorrow. But like we were, talking, I get to get home, sleep my own bed, start a little laundry. So, uh, we're we're in good shape. The fun stuff, right, That's right, that's right.00:01:14Buzz KnightWell, take me back. When was the first moment in your life that you knew that you were going to be connected with music?00:01:22Matt StellYou know, I always had I always loved music. I just I guess assumed everybody loved music, uh the way I did. But I guess in college I found out that I just really had a passion for it. You know. That's where I kind of picked up a guitar and sat in front of a computer like this, and the learned how to play and and you know that turned into you know, buddies coming over and then you know, frat houses and and uh, you know shows and stuff like that, and you know, I kind of fell into it that way. But I guess I kind of knew, I kind of knew I was. I knew music was always gonna be a part of what I did, But I didn't know that I was going to get to, you know, make my life about it, you know, build my life around it.00:02:00Buzz KnightWas anybody in your family associated with music or musicians.00:02:05Matt StellYeah, so I have a pretty musical family, especially on my mom's side. I actually had a couple of cousins that had record deals and put out music and and did that. And I was actually I was always, you know, the athlete. I was the ballplayer, and I never you know, I wasn't playing music at the time. And then you know, I sort of stumbled on it in college. It was this, you know, different, different thing, and I felt like I had this big learning curve that I had to, uh to catch up with everybody. So but but that was that was probably good, you know, because it showed me what how good good is and because they were really really talented people, and and uh, you know, I learned a lot from them, both both musically and then you know, kind of on the business side of stuff too.00:02:47Buzz KnightWho were some of the mentors that really made a difference for you?00:02:51Matt StellAll the mentors that really made a difference for me. You know, there's a lot going forward. I know that you know, my cousin Hey, and uh, she was really gracious and and uh, you know, and including me on, and uh, Automatic and tire Song right here in town really went out on a m for me and and helped me get helped me get my first pub deal when I finally did. And and you know, I've had and I've had people along the way I've had you know. Uh, it's it takes so many people, in so many different ways, uh to do this kind of stuff. Uh asked Bowers early on. He he really Uh you know, he gave me an opportunity early on. So I gotta I gotta thank him for that. And uh, you know a lot of writers too that I just kind of were would write with me and I'd learned from him, and uh, you know that there's there's some great folks there as well. Uh Screwter Caruso. You know, He's one that I've written with a lot and learned a lot from. And so so yeah, man, I mean the list is long, you know, especially from the radio sides. You know, there's there's a lot of people from the label side and stuff like that. But it takes a lot of people. And uh, and I try to keep my eyes and ears open and and ready to learn something as much as I can.00:04:09Buzz KnightYou have a multifaceted sort of background in terms of your schooling and some of the other aspirations that you were associated with. So I want to click through a couple of them. I mean, you played college basketball, didn't you?00:04:25Matt StellI did? Yeah, Yeah I did. I played. That's actually where I started playing guitar. Because you're on campus all winter break. You know, if you're playing PlayStation with your teammates, or you're you know, that's a play at practice, you know, that's about it. Or traveling to play ball, you know, that's about it. So, uh, that's where I picked up a guitar. And and but but basketball was my first was my first love, was my first dream. And that one kind of turned into this one that I have now.00:04:53Buzz KnightAs somebody who studied communications, myself was fascinated that you also studied communications. What aspirations around uh communications did you have?00:05:06Matt StellWell, you know, I was really more interested in kind of rhetorical studies, American studies, kind of social critique, that kind of thing. I just always it was interested in dealing with, uh, you know, kind of big and new and interesting ideas. You know. My my communication my my communication degree wasn't focused in like organization or mass communication and broadcasts or anything like that. It was it was it was much more of a of a an outcropping of h of like social critique and things like that. Like I was just always interested in, uh people's ideas of how things worked, and I had my own ideas and and so yeah, that that was that's kind of my my uh communication in a nut show where I could really just you know, I could really call it like rhetoric or argumentation, you know that, you know, that's that's what I was interested in.00:06:01Buzz KnightAnd then the medical side of your aspirations. You were involved with the medical mission uh to Haiti, and you, uh you studied pre med. Uh tell me about that.00:06:16Matt StellWell, so I didn't study pre med. I thought I was gonna maybe. I thought I was gonna do it. So I went I went on that. I went on that medical missus Tria origin along saw some doctors and and it was just really blown away by how they could just improve people's lives, but as you know, help it, you know, directly could help people, you know that really needed it the most. And I was like, man, that's that's that's pretty special. And uh so I applied to this pre medical program because I had a lot of you know, I've been to a lot of school, but I still needed some hard sciences, you know. I needed my physics and chemistry and what have you to be able to apply to some of these med schools. And I got accepted in a program for that. But I because I was in Nashville trying to get a publishing deal so I could write songs and that hadn't happened. So I got it setted into that program. I was gonna pull up stakes and move to the Northeast and and just really take a fourking road. And man, I got the opportunity to write songs about two months before I was moving. So uh, luckily I didn't have to fail. I didn't have to flunk out of pre med before before not having to do it, because they would have been pretty tough, but I did. I did think that would be I don't know. I was just very very wowed by by the way that that the medicine can can help people, like right now. So I'm going to come back to music and medicine a little bit later on. So what was this band, the Crashers all about? Man? That was my first band, dude. You know, I was playing acoustics in bars and had a buddy that he and I started playing together and we put a band together and uh we uh yeah, that was our it was our first shot at it. I was really a lot of those guys lived in Missouri and I did too, it U while I was in college. And uh then I moved then I moved back home around a little rock and but we would still tour too, around Plavory show that we could, everywhere that we could. And uh, yeah, that was my first experience with it and learned a lot, learned, learned what to do, what not to do, and and uh, you know it was uh, it was a special time for sure. You still press Uh there's probably some out there somewhere. Yeah, I actually I have recordings of the songs we were playing. I guess I probably recorded them with uh with other other musicians. But you know, we tried to make a record together one time. It didn't go great. And uh and then uh so ided up coming to Nashville and and uh, you know, cutting a record with some studio guys, and you know, we turned on that and you know, again it was like because you can make music, because technology had kind of democratize music where you can make it, anybody can make it. You make a record, a record you know, you can. I have a bunch of stuff from what I was learning how to make music and how to write music, and some of it's all right, and then some of it's like, look cringey. But but at the end of the day, you know, that's that learning process. You know that you kind of grow up through your through try to trial and error, and there's plenty of error, that's for sure.00:09:24Buzz KnightI like to talk about your songwriting process, how you learn that process, and also what you like about it and what you don't like about the songwriting process.00:09:36Matt
Desmond Child: American Songwriter and Producer
Buzz:Takin' a Walk.Desmond Child:I think that we're hardwired to be comforted by music or excited by music since the beginning
In The Press


Inside Podcasting
In this edition of Inside Podcasting, we go outside and join leading media strategist and executive Buzz Knight as he returns to his broadcast roots. “Takin’ a Walk” is an authoritative podcast series where Knight chats with guests — including authors, musicians, media people and ordinary people with extraordinary stories to tell — while walking. The result is an intimate and engaging listening experience. But don’t be fooled into thinking that Knight’s remarkable broadcasting expertise found podcasting akin to a walk in the park.


Buzz Knight Channels the Walden Vibe in a Delightful New Podcast Series
It’s an interesting thing—interviewing a professional interviewer. On a warm summer morning, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Concord’s own Buzz Knight. A friendly and unassuming guy, he sits relaxed and smiling on the patio overlooking the fields of Hutchins Farm, ready to chat with me about his latest project. Armed with background research and a list of questions, I was prepared to gather the information for an article. Instead, I found myself entranced in a captivating story.
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