BMP (Buffalo Music Players) BREAKING EPISODE: Davey Harris

Davey Harris, former drummer for the Tins and frustrated piano student, talks it up with BMP.

But why is this a BREAKING EPISODE? Well, Davey, through a disciplined style of constant production and creative, emotional plunging of his soul, has done it again and released a single worth listening to.

Called "Fuck AI," it may not be for children, but Harris expresses our sentiments here at BMP. Yes, it's a tool, yes, it's probably going to change the entire world. It'll also probably result in nuclear war and a weird dystopia. I give it 20 years, but hope it's so damn dumb I'll get 40 out of it.

Harris is an accomplished singer-songwriter and talks about his craft from beautiful Buffalo as he gets ready to take his masterpieces and strip them down for live performance.

As always, keep listening to BMP.

Check out "Fuck AI" on Instagram @daveyharrisofficial

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BUFFALO CREATIVE WORKSHOP

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SHIANNE WAXING STUDIO

Theme for the Shianne Waxing Studio Commercial was Conducted & Composed by Philip Milman

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:51

So I got the upper hand. If the road can do it. I check and I've never focused all. So I got the upper hand.

unknown 1:02

Is the BMP pocket? It's the BMB pocket. It's the BMP pocket.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

This just then a double scoop of bad news. Man, life just isn't letting up. I feel like the walls are closing in, and I don't have a way to stop it. I wish there was somewhere I could go. Some place where I could just get away from everything. And just be creative.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

There is. The Buffalo Creative Workshop. Who said that? Spirit of Creativity. I heard you're playing. I fell to do the healthy. Okay, in the Great Arrow Building on Elmwood Avenue, use our space, our art supplies, and equipment to your heart's content. Let us hope you beat back the stress and feel centered again.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Wow, that sounds great. I'll check it out.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Always remember, if the world has your creative spirits in a rut, come to the Buffalo Creative Workshop for a pick-me-up. More about Buffalo Creative Workshop can be found at Buffalo.creativeWorkshop on Instagram.

SPEAKER_03 2:28

Hello, BMP listeners. This is Benjamin Joe. And I am Max. And uh what we have on the podcast today is a very special guest. He's a good friend of mine. He likes to go by the name of uh Davy Harris. He's a singer, songwriter, and generally all around Buffalonian transplant who has stayed here into his uh more adult years. Yes. Yeah, introduce yourself, David. Tell us about a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_04 2:55

Yeah, um, well, it's good to be here with you, Ben, and Max. Happy to have you.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Yeah. And uh I by the way, we are actually in Davy's house right now. So we've never been in anyone's house before, so we're honored.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

Yeah, it's an on-site. So I like music. I think I've been consistently committed to creating music, and surprisingly, I've lived in Buffalo for like 17 years at this point. Yeah. And I do think Buffalo is a really cool place to perform music and especially in my opinion to write music. Really? I it sounds interesting, but the winter months can feel desolate and cold out, and I don't know. I think it's actually having a little bit of sad the uh seasonal affect disorder, um, but having that energy can uh be transmuted into art. And I've written what I'd consider to be my best music ever, most inspired music, while being here in the winter. Oh wow, that's cool. That's one way of looking at it, I guess. Yeah. Now I think you can share the music in the summer when it's nice and warm.

SPEAKER_03 4:10

Exactly. Exactly. Can dance all night. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Where are you from originally?

SPEAKER_03 4:14

Long Island. Long Island.

SPEAKER_04 4:16

Which also has winters.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I guess it's by the ocean, so do you miss the ocean?

SPEAKER_04 4:22

Um, I was never like I never lived on a beach. Right, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. So I I never really felt like, even though technically I grew up near an ocean, like that was the same, the same coast. Yeah. I never really visited it, so I really don't miss it too much.

SPEAKER_03 4:39

Well, that's a good thing. That's that's good.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Um you've always been a highly creative person?

SPEAKER_04 4:44

Yeah. I started off as a two-year-old sculpting clay. Oh, oh and so with play-doh? With play-doh, but really with clay. I loved the you know, the gooey kind of clay that wouldn't even harden. And so I would just make sculptures all the time, and my mom would show off, you know, to her friends these different really weird sculptures and shout out, mom. Yeah, shout out to mom. Uh the I would like at one point I sculpted what look was like basically a blob that kind of looked like a snake. But again, I was like a two, three-year-old, and I just perch it on people's shoulder and say, like, bird, bird. And but I I sculpted literally until the end of high school, and actually even into college, and there was a point where I was like, either I'm gonna be a sculptor or I'm gonna be a musician. And then I thought, well, sculptors don't get girls, I'll be a musician. I don't know, have you seen ghosts? Well, you know, that I learned the lesson after the fact that you know sculptors may get more women, but um so be it.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

But you're in hindsight, you're not just a musician, you're a drummer. Like that you you've got the whole package right there. Like none of the existential dread, like all the cool rhythms and like fun fun stuff.

SPEAKER_04 6:03

The other piece of it is that I for whatever reason wanted to play the flute as a kid. Oh, because I thought that was cool. The flute flute was like a little sword, it was an interesting thing as a kid. And my mom was like, Well, why don't you you know we don't have a flute, but we do have a piano. So why don't you play that? And then I'd learn the piano, and that was my medium, and I'd like to write songs on piano, and even though I was I had a teacher and I was given like theory and learning different songs, somehow I always found a way to not play whatever I was being given, but instead just make up my own stuff. Yeah, because I'm way better off at like hearing something and playing it versus reading music, and um, but I there was a time when uh I saw like a friend's band in high school, and you know, he was a drummer, and I was just imagining to myself, like, man, what instrument is the opposite of the piano? The piano is such a sensitive, emotional, emotive uh platform, and I was like, oh man, the drums are like the coolest thing. Exactly. And so I kind of like made also I asked, you know, this my younger years, like you know, I asked my parents for like a drum kit, so all the like every year, and they were like, We have a small house, why would we have a drum kit that's like a suicide mission? Yeah, and then on my uh 17th birthday, like my dad surprised me and apparently like went to a few garage sales and created the crappiest makeshift drum kit, but I was so stoked, and he was like in my bedroom surprising me. So, like, you know, I that I would like basically got a drum kit uh you know right before leaving for college, but that was what I was most excited about, yeah. And um, and yeah, I ended up joining a band not as a piano player but as a drummer, and the whole joke of the band The Tins is that like Mike and Adam saw me playing the drums and they thought I was really good at the drums. And you know, secretly I wasn't, I was learning them, but uh I just became a drummer, but I always had an identity crisis because you know I didn't I was like the drummer of this band, but I never really had a background in being a drummer. You felt like imposter syndrome, like uh of course, and it like I feel like imposter syndrome if I were to say now I'm a singer or I'm a guitarist. Uh even the word musician has interesting connotations to it, but the word I feel very confident in is being a songwriter. Like that's the thing where I'm like, I'm good at that, I can I'm gonna own that. Yeah, you are. Um, but then it's you know, and the other things are kind of a means to an end, like the ability to play instruments and sing and produce.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

And I've uh I've always admired uh the way that you songwrite, and I'd I'd also like to go and mention to the listeners that that Davy actually has a retreat that he has um that he that he hosts at his house from people from people nearby and far away, like people taking planes to go and get to this retreat of making a song, and I was lucky enough to be a part of that um this last what it was in June? Uh yeah. June, and um I had a really good time, and I and so and because I did the retreat, I know a little bit about the answer, but I'm gonna ask you, Dave, like, you know, I mean, how you've been doing this like for years now, like what and it's not just like you know, like how do you have the ability to do this, like, or like socially have my friends always help me, but like where does it come for you to constantly be creative like in your daily life? Because you could literally hang it up, you could literally just be like, oh, that was a fun thing, I used to go and do in my 20s and 30s, but like now I'm gonna now I'm an accountant or whatever, you know what I mean? Like, you know, or you know, I make a lot of money doing something else and go on vacations. I don't you know, I listen to music, but I don't actually make music, I don't write songs anymore. What keeps you in that role of being that creative person? Like, you know, and is it voluntary or not?

SPEAKER_04 9:58

Yeah, I that's a great question. And I like to think back to a time in a Buffalo winter when I was writing a song, and I thought the song was really good, and I'm like holding this guitar and I'm sitting on my couch writing this song that I think is really good and has a lot of potential, and I am feeling so depressed because I'm thinking, what the hell is the point of this? Like, this isn't making any money, this is really just a distraction for me from doing anything else. Like, I'm just some kind of escapism, and I felt kind of cursed to have an ability to be a songwriter because I knew that nothing could meet that as far as the satisfaction for me, like it just checks off so many boxes for me as far as writing music. Um, and then you know, years later, because I still did it, but I felt sad, but um I had realized the you know, the Joseph Campbell quote of like, uh, you know, when you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that would be closed for anyone else. I know uh, you know, paraphrasing here. Um, but it's it's this idea that I I think I've taken ownership of like who I am as a person and how it just literally feels good to create. And I've after having many seasons of life where I wasn't creative, I realize that my own satisfaction and fulfillment is on a new plane when I'm creating. And uh and so I kind of like realize this is just a part of who I am, and so if I am to be in my fullest and in my fullness, then I it just needs to be a part of my life, and I still do other things and have business ventures, and I like to be creative, and I I think it's important to be able to, you know, uh sustain your lifestyle and oh sure. You're also good at frisbee golf. Yeah, I'm below below average. I'm subpar. That's my frisbee golf joke. Um but uh I yeah, so I think that I've like kind of learned this secret, which is your life is better when you have art and expression in it, and it's also like make sure you also have like another life as well, so that your life isn't only this artistic expression, because that's when you kind of enter into like a crazy world of like what is real and what isn't, and if you're only doing it for the art, you're gonna have super high highs and then super low lows, and it's kind of instability. Wow. Um, but it on the other hand, like if you have a life devoid of art, you kind of suck. And uh like it it unless you admit you're like I'm not an artist, but I appreciate music, and you I'll go to experiences so that I can experience art. But uh, you know, a thing that I have learned is that most people are art artistic, have the have an ex a gene of expression, and um most people, if you ask their truest selves, like do you know, like do you have a desire to express yourself here, here, here like the truth is they do. And at some point, you know, their their inner artists, they're their child artists have been uh that those dreams have been squashed. And so like the retreats that we do, part of it is for people that don't have a lot of experience being an artist, and it's creating this little container and cocoon to like give your inner child permission to be creative, and uh because kids, as you know, are they don't try to be creative, they just are. Yeah, they're the bastion of creativity. Yeah, they don't have any masks or anything, you know. Yeah, yeah, and so that's that's it's really like the a space to take off your mask and see what is really there. And um a lot of times that's the whole like epiphany of the retreat for someone's just like being encouraged to take off that mask and then not actually try and then prove yourself wrong or you know, prove yourself right and create something you you know surprised yourself by. Um and so that's really fulfilling. And then at the same time, for these retreats, we also bring in artists and sometimes even very accomplished musicians because it's almost like if you have too much art and expression, um, at some point you may be jaded or cynical by that whole experience and then lose sight of why. And so then there's almost like a rediscovery back to like the origins of why you would even be be pursuing art to begin with, and that seems to be really restorative. And it's almost like this retreat is made for like the version of myself that was super depressed that one night when I was writing a song and felt hopeless about it as well, because I I was in a way, I was like writing it for the wrong reasons. You were why were we writing it? Uh I think I was writing it to like prove my worth. Oh yeah. Uh or I it's not that I was writing it to prove my worth, but I made that I put that um perspective on it. Right, exactly. Like after it was written in a natural, organic way, I then judged myself and you know put it in the paradigm of like this is my worth. And um the you know, today it's more of like what is fun, and if it's genuine fun is what's guiding it, then that gives a lot of energy, or if it's expression, uh like there is so the song that I'll be releasing at some point, which I think I'm calling fuck AI instead of FAI, gosh, um like I wrote it on my 40th birthday. I actually in my head wrote it going to sleep one night, um, but it it came from a place of feeling very depressed and anxious about AI music and AI art and feeling and then I was honestly super unmotivated. Like this past year, I've been really unmotivated to create music. And it because it went back to that same paradigm from years ago of what's the point, and it's almost like if AI is gonna create this anyway, that's so fucking sad. And then the whole thing with Spotify, where if you upload music to Spotify, apparently like their AI algorithms were you're actually agreeing to have your music be in like the Spotify matrix to that for them to then replicate that to create other AI music, and so you're basically like an ingredient in the AI soup, in a way.

SPEAKER_03 16:35

Um, and other reason to hate Spotify is a good idea.

SPEAKER_04 16:38

Yeah, and and but and you know, and there are maybe there are solutions out there, and sometimes it can feel a little bit hopeless, and so I had this thought of like this is all super hopeless, and then I was like, what is the only way out here? And then I almost all of a sudden felt that inspiration, which I hadn't felt in years. Uh, and it was like, okay, well, let's write a body of work about this to express ourselves because that's certainly a more human characteristic. Uh, and then that's where the fuck AI energy was birthed. And and the irony is that once I wrote that song, firstly, I'm experimenting more with AI anyway. I just needed to get out of my screen. It's a tool. Well, exactly, it's a tool, but but also I'm now like more motivated. I I'm I feel like I'm more connected to the music I'm writing. Uh, because it's just it so that that is to say, like, music as a means of expression is really awesome. And uh, you know, I've written a lot of songs when I was angry. Yeah. Um that's and um and I've also written some songs when I'm happy, and I even wrote a song uh, you know, to my wife on our wedding day. And so I guess there's like I'm just sharing there's uh like art has a lot of power in uh you know coloring your life in a really fun or interesting or you know uh fulfilling way. And so when I do retreats, that's really more to make sure that that when people leave a retreat that is alive in them.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

Um yeah, they they they just I I love feeling fulfilled. I I love thinking like that was the best way to have been spending my my weekend. Um it was just a lot of fun. What do you went to next one? Are you gonna have another one here or are you doing it elsewhere as well?

SPEAKER_04 18:32

Yes, we had done we've done four retreats in Hawaii and two retreats in Buffalo. Nice. And the retreat that we had done in Buffalo every year was called The Record of Your Life, and that was with Mammoth Studio. Uh we would be the group band, and everyone would come together to write one song that we would have professionally recorded and produced and um released, which is what we did, and I think the two songs that we had released so far from those retreats I think are great. One is the song called We Are Awesome. Yeah, we are awesome. That plays guitar on that song. Oh shut up, shut up. And then uh the other is this song called Burning about being a Phoenix that we released uh on the year of the fire horse of the February the 17th. I think it was February 17th.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

That was a good song. I didn't put take as much of a role in that in that particular song, but I felt like I was there for vibes.

SPEAKER_04 19:27

You were said you wanted to be Rick Rubin for that one. I did. So that was your role.

SPEAKER_03 19:31

Did you show up disheveled?

SPEAKER_04 19:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 19:34

Very disheveled. Like more disheveled than right today, in fact. Like very disheveled.

SPEAKER_04 19:40

More disheveled than Queso's little wet butt. Yeah, it's the cat that I'm pinning right now.

SPEAKER_03 19:44

Um you do a lot of stuff with animals. Like a lot of your music is animals. I I love listening to the animals uh, volume one, I think, is it when it comes up and um it's really fun.

SPEAKER_04 19:53

Uh that was it started with a song about honeybees and then a song about penguins. And then I had these relationships and introductions to different uh non-profits that uh were supporting animal conservation or some form of um helping the climate. And so that was and I made it Animals Volume 1 because I'm leaving space for animals volume two, and I'm not I'm not forcing it, but there are certain conversations in motion right now, and there may be some other animal music in the future. Very nice. Any chance you'll be performing at the zoo? That is a great idea, and I should perform at the zoo. They need they need some kind of promo, man. So yeah. Uh that's cool. That's a good idea. I should reach out.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

Cool. So is there any song in particular that you um would like to uh showcase for our listeners to go and get kind of an introduction into like your your uh your musical um abilities? Um is there any one in particular? I like the penguin dance song personally. I I played that at my wedding. Better than the chicken dance song? Penguin dance song. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:04

Uh well, you know, you could always play that. Ru I mean I I fall into that trap as an artist where it's you're only as good as your last release. Oh, yeah. So I would think of the burning song that we just released. Knowing that when someone's listening to this, it's during most likely this year of the Fire Wars. And so this is a song all about resetting and acting as that phoenix rising from the ashes of fire and really going for it. Um that would be the song I'd recommend someone listen to it. Alright, well let's listen to that.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

After a long day, it's hard to turn off. That's why I go to Mammoth Cannabis on two twelve Ohio Street. There's stuff I'll have you laid out flatter than a mammoth's foot. From flour to pre rolls, vaporizers to concentrate, you can rest assured. That something big is waiting for you at Mammoth Dispensary. Just keep in mind, if you smoke cereal from the General Mills factory nearby, they can't help you. You have to go home and get a ball yourself. It's a dispensary, not a eatery after all.

SPEAKER_03 23:20

But he's his his production of his songs is amazing. And he uses a lot of different instruments, he uses a lot of different uh sound games kind of things. It's amazing to watch, but I think it's even more amazing that you're able to take all that and then just rip it down to a single guitar and play in front of people. So I was wondering how how's the live playing been going?

SPEAKER_04 23:40

The live playing has been going well enough. I I was sharing, I had a cool performance at Times Square in uh earlier the last year or later in the last year. And these past couple months were uh in now a little bit into 2026. I've been in slight hibernation mode, but also in preparation mode. And I I've been more focused on having the next lineup of releases. Uh and I I know that the live performances are coming. So I I have one, my next official performance is gonna be in October. Uh but I I know a little bit of what it would take to get more shows, which would be to book them. And so I I I think there's a uh desire to have uh have my releases lined up because they're a lot of these songs are close, and I'm viewing this year as a an expression year to really like in the spirit of the fire horse to really get to release uh a lot of releases. Um so I haven't been focused as much on the live performances, though I know they're coming and planned for that in let's say the second half of 2026.

SPEAKER_03 25:05

Very cool, very, very cool. And uh you're gonna do another uh apparently I'm playing at the zoo.

SPEAKER_04 25:11

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Well we put that energy out there.

SPEAKER_04 25:13

I was looking forward to that one.

SPEAKER_03 25:15

Yeah. So are you gonna be doing another retreat coming up in uh June again?

SPEAKER_04 25:20

Or uh Yes, so we're doing what we're calling the song of your life this June 25th to 29th here in Buffalo, and it's also open to a bunch of people who have are not from Buffalo.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

Yeah, I I enjoyed talking to a lot of people who are not from Buffalo at all. I was just telling Max on the way up, I was like, this one guy like flew in from Africa or something like that, and I was like, wow, like you flew all the way to Buffalo from Africa to go to a songwriting retreat at Dave's house.

SPEAKER_04 25:51

We we've had many guests, and that's um, you know, if m the way I met people for this retreat is how drawn are you to having uh a transformative experience that involves art? And how how much are you do you yearn that? Because the the right people like they know that there's kind of a craving inside for like an artistic breakthrough of some sort, an expressive breakthrough, uh, and they're probably even feel a little bit intimidated by the idea. But they're still they're still drawn, and you know, we it's a very like I had done some personality test a couple years back about the archetypes I embody, and it was jester alchemist. Wow. So you know, the jester is also like the Shakespearean fool who is able to point out something, point out a truth, but in a in a light manner. Yeah. And uh and then the alchemist is all about transmutation. You know, it um it could be you know turning something into gold.

SPEAKER_03 27:10

Are you a brewer of some sort of alcoholic?

SPEAKER_04 27:13

Um we do serve alcohol to retreat. Uh you know, we do do the retreat a little bit at Mammoth Studio, which is next to Mammoth Cannabis, so we do have those ingredients. Um but it's more of what what inner feelings do you get to transmute or to transform into gold, so to speak. And so um I'm I'm sharing this because like here when we do the retreat, it's honestly it's fun. It's goofy in a way, it's like it's you know, your most playful self is invited to kind of come out. Like when I'm talking about it now, it sounds like serious, but it's really just a shit ton of fun. And that's when the inner child gets to come through, and then that's where you know different things get to be released, and um, and then like the truest art gets to emerge, you know, the cream rises to the top, and then the the joke of these retreats is like day one, everyone's a little bit scared to even consider like writing a song or presenting a song to other people, and it feels a little bit scary. And by the last day, which is after we've gone through a certain training and some different group bonding experiences, most people don't want any more education. They're just I'm just like I just want to write my song. Like, I'm stoked, and you know, and then when you write it, most people are really excited to perform it, and it like the parties the last night after everyone's performed their songs are amazing, and it's you know it's a highlight of the year.

SPEAKER_03 28:42

It's a really good time. Uh listen, folks, it looks like we are running out of time. Davey, thank you so much for being on the pod today. I really appreciate it. It's been a long time coming. I've been trying to I've been getting a debut for like months now.

SPEAKER_04 28:54

Yeah, and you you showed up?

SPEAKER_03 28:56

I did. I did I did I showed up, I showed up when when we scheduled, even though Davy might have been a little bit inebriated when he um agreed to this at the time. Yes. But I'm sober now.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

That's all that matters.

SPEAKER_03 29:08

Yes. Alright. Thanks, listeners, thanks for listening, and I'll see you at the next episode.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

So the bringer of life, the bringer of unimaginable joy, the cause of catastrophic destruction. Knowing that you have something so powerful, wouldn't you want the best to take care of it? Pardon me for saying this, I am just a humble announcer. But if I had a coochie, I'd probably get it waxed at Cheyenne's waxing studio on 830 Elmwood Ave. You have power in between your legs, so why not have it taken care of by the best? No matter discipline, I will help you out. Don't believe in gatekeeping, we all gotta eat, and this is our way of helping Avengers, we go. Like, where you gotta podcast, everybody got to be quite honest. I don't got a job. I'm too pretty. I'm finna make a kill. If Joe Rogan can do it, I sure can. I've never fucked the stall, so I've got the upper hand. If Joe Rogan can do it, I sure can. I've never fucked a stool, so I've got the upper hand.

unknown 31:00

It's the B and B pocket. It's the B and B pocket. It's the B and B pocket.