Connecting to Your Audience with Lang & Renee Bliss of BlissBliss

Casey Combest: Hey everyone. Welcome to the Blue Sky Studios podcast. I have some amazing guests for you today. Guys, take a moment and introduce yourselves and tell our listeners a little bit about your, your music and what you guys do.

Lang Bliss: Yeah, thanks Casey. We really appreciate you asking us to be on and, and so I'm Lang Bliss.

Renee Bliss: I'm Renee.

Lang Bliss: And we are artists, songwriters, producers kind of, you know, welcome to the music business, you know, where you can definitely wear many hats.

Renee Bliss: Oh yeah.

Lang Bliss: As artists, we are called Bliss Bliss, and we write and perform and record our own original music. Yeah. And then also I have a company called Different World Productions and I work with artists on their live shows. So I help produce artists everywhere from, you know, weekend warriors to the armed forces to major label, signed acts, and kind of everything in between. And so I think that's what we'll, what we're gonna talk about this morning, I guess. Right? Yeah, no doubt.

Casey Combest: And, and Renee, Lang, where are you guys from originally?

Well,

Renee Bliss: I'm originally from Indiana. I'm up from in Fort Wayne actually. And moved. via Colorado. So I went from Indiana to Colorado and then from Colorado to the Nashville area. Back in, it was 83 when I moved here.

Casey Combest: Okay.

Lang Bliss: I'm from Virginia, originally moved to California and then moved here from California. So kinda the same. cue it as well.

Casey Combest: And Nashville welcomed both of you guys with open arms. So that's awesome. Glad you guys are there. Well, Lang, Ia first came across Your paradigm for approaching a live show a few years back, and it was really as a worship leader, I just lead on Sunday. I don't do live shows or anything like that, but even leading on Sundays, it sort of changed the way I approached the stage. And I would love to hear a little bit about maybe the overall framework or paradigm that you teach and how that's, or why that's important for artists to think through.

Lang Bliss: Yeah, yeah. Well, and, and saying even that you were a worship leader that it's interesting because I think the paradigm probably is, is it, it's a larger umbrella that's covered by the concept of communication. How do you communicate to people, right? And the good thing, or the good part about wha- what is the information I share with people is that really music just happens to be the vehicle. But if you're always thinking about people and how you're communicating with people, then it. it knocks out all the reasons of saying, well, this doesn't work with that.

And that doesn't work with this. If you're thinking larger perspective, people are people. And the great thing about that is, is it doesn't matter if you're in India, you know, or Indiana, you know, people communicate with people. Mm-hmm. . And there's certain just known sort of quantitative pieces in that that you can always know they never change.

And that's the wonder wonderful thing about once you kinda learn some of these, . You understand, Hey, this is just human beings communicating back and forth. Then you realize, well, if I can figure that out, then I can kind of, if you want to use the term when, so to speak, no matter where I play, when I play, who I play to, and that part really begins to change your whole.

Or a lot of artists' viewpoints on what live performance is because there's so, you know, we, every single person on the planet, probably to some degree or another, has heard the, the term stagefright. You know, and that just sort of describes how it feels when you get up on stage and you don't know what to do, you know?

And and so in teaching what I teach, I'm using these concepts that are about communication as a f. to help artists, specifically people on the platform, on the stage, understand what their audience is looking for, what the congregation and what whoever the group of people might be. Why did they come to an event?

What are their expectations? And, and then how do I, knowing this help facilitate. A relationship that develops. And so there's, you know, a number of different pieces that sort of help set up an easier understanding of it, I guess. Mm-hmm. , so to speak. And that is if, if you knew that people, you know, understand communication. sort of in three percentages. And I won't get too deep into it, and I don't, I, I'm not sure how much you want me to share, but No, that's great.

Casey Combest: Yeah. Yeah. Good there. And then I'll follow up with a question. That's

Lang Bliss: great. Yeah. If, if you understood that people understand communication, whether it's from the stage or just one-on-one, literally in three kind of pieces then you, then you change how you, what you would spend the most time focusing on.

And, and it basically breaks down to. , only 15% of what we understand is communication between human beings is the actual content. So from the stage, the content is the music and the lyrics, right? And then 30% is the tone or emotion that content is delivered with. So that's, you know, am I, how, how, how am I delivering it?

Like, you know if I was speak, the content might be, here's the content I'm giving to you. This is just the words, you know, but if. giving with, you know, this concept of, of how it's delivered. I might raise my voice, make a certain point, or be quiet or use my hand. You know, you, I'm giving body language as well.

And then the big part is the 55% over half of what they see the content is what they see. So we understand so much more what somebody's trying to communicate through what we see than what the actual content. . So understanding that, then it flips the paradigm for so many musicians who think that I have to play perfectly.

If I play it perfectly, if I'm better than everybody else, because I've worked and I practice this thing over and over and over and over and over and over, you know, and I'm, my pitch is perfect. My delivery is perfect, my ti, you know, my timing, everything about the music is perfect, then I'm gonna have people fall in love with me.

And then when they do that, or they get as close as they possibly can to it and nobody really jumps up and down. , then they're less scratching their heads, frustrated, going, well, what in the heck is it? Then what do I gotta do? You know? And they run after pursuing, doing these different things, not knowing that what it is.

Why, why do people connect? And when you don't know why people want to connect to you, then you will spend a whole lot of time doing a bunch of things that don't get you any. Yeah.

Casey Combest: It, it sort of reminds me a lot of times the artists or bands we work with are they're not on labels. Yeah. But they, you know, at some point would like some management or booking or to be on a label even.

And, you know, it's inevitable that at some point in our conversation with that artist or band, they express some sort of frustration and, and not even like a, in a jealous way. Right. But it's like, Steve is doing this and he's not that great, but people love him . But then, you know, it, it's a great point.

Like you, you see Steve and it's like, yeah, he's not that great, but man, he just connects with people. Yeah. Renee, for you as you're approaching leading a band, if as you're approaching your stage presence, how does what Lane just said impact what you do?

Lang Bliss: Well,

Renee Bliss: it's, it's absolutely huge because the thing.

You know, and, and Lang has also said this is that, and this goes to the answer of your, of the person asking the question, why's Steve doing so great? He's not that awesome.

Casey Combest: And if there's anyone listening to Steve that I've worked with Steve is not a real person, so please don't, don't send me emails about being offended.

I'm sorry. It's just an exact Yeah. We

Renee Bliss: all, yeah, we all know Steve's. But anyway, yeah, it, it's like that is the one area that you really do get an opportunity to really. Had that moment to connect. And, and I don't know about, I mean, a lot of people, it's hard for musicians, the get gigs, singers, the get gigs in the first place.

But if you get 'em, you wanna walk away knowing that you gave your heart and everything in it and your, and it was, it was all embodied in the, in the presentation and the delivery of it. And here's the thing, I'll just tell you a perfect example of this. I, I, So we did some restaurant gigs. Okay. And if any of you meet people out there, do restaurant gigs, you know, the frustration of the stomach always wins.

That means that if there's food involved, or even in some cases there's, there's drinks involved, people are more focused on that and they're even more focused on talking while you're, while you're doing. Well, here's the thing, you can't even let something like that waitresses dropping glasses or anything like that get in the way.

You need to go up there because here's the deal. We did that several times. I was so frustrated with him like going, nobody cares. Nobody's listening. We're not even a cover band. In our case, we were doing original music mostly. Nobody's listening, nobody cares. And there's always that one, two, a few people that were with all of the chaos going.

They were, they were something that you said or something that you did, made some kind of a difference in that person, in, in where they wanted to come see you again or they might buy something and those are the people you really, really want. That's your, I'm winning this person over moment. So in, in all that, he said it, it's a situation where you just have to change, swap your mindset on it, and realize that no matter what audience you're in front, somebody is out there that is gonna be a majorly, majorly impacted by your music and therefore they're gonna be the person that's gonna come along with you as an artist on the journey.

And that's what you really want. I mean, ultimately it can be a slow build, but it's definitely a build that's worth

Lang Bliss: it. Good point.

Casey Combest: Yeah. That's great Renee. And I know as you guys. See so many acts out, whether you're working with 'em or you're just observing them, there's probably common threads of, Hey, ooh, that's a kind of a moment that irks you, or, wow, I wish they would've done that different.

I'd love to hear like, what are some of those common threads, like things that people listening can just practically implement in their live performance or show.

Lang Bliss: Yeah, well, probably the very first thing would be make what you do visual. it, it only takes two, three songs of everybody standing in the same spot before the audience are all kind of collectively going, you guys want to go to Starbucks,

You know, because if it's not visual unfortunately you're taking the biggest part of their connection and basically removing it. So that's one thing. Another, like I reme, I was doing an an interview with a girl and she. , if there was one thing, that you could tell me, don't ever do it on stage, and I said I know exactly what it is, and that is, don't apologize.

You know when you're up on the platform or you're on the stage and you're up behind a microphone. , don't apologize for what you're doing. Meaning, you know, there's a lot of that. Like, oh, we didn't get to practice this one as much. Or, oh, my throat's a little bit scratchy tonight. You know, whatever it might be.

Th this is it. That's all that the audience knows of who you are, is what you're doing right in front of them. They don't know what you could be, they just know what you are at that moment, and so don't apologize. And then, . I would say just the main thing is like creating experiences moments. Mm-hmm. for the audience becomes the thing that they connect with.

And I go into a lot with that. And so the idea behind that is, is that that's how they experience the music. They're not, they don't know music like we do as musicians. They don't know if you're playing a mix scale or a fish scale. You know, , they don't know. Singing High Sea or drinking it, you know, , what they relate to is what you make them feel.

And if what you're doing up on the stage doesn't make them feel something, then it's very difficult for them to connect to you and develop the relationship where they trust you enough to wanna buy what you do. You know, every purchase is made based upon a relationship. We believe that what that person is create has created and is offering.

is something of great value to me, but if I don't believe in trust that that is really gonna benefit me, then I won't fork over my hard-earned money for it.

Casey Combest: Gimme some examples of, that's super great insight. Gimme some examples of that. Creating a meaningful moment. Yeah. And maybe it's something you guys do or somebody that you've coached.

When,

Lang Bliss: when I'm helping artists create moments, it basically involves a few pieces. . Figuring out what is it that the audience is most quickly and easily connecting to on that song for, well, let's just use a song. And songs are different. So what you're doing is you're sort of using this concept of cracking the song open, asking the questions, what's the thing that they're gonna connect to?

And on some songs, on one song it might be, might be the music itself. Literally the. , or it could be the melody or it could be the way the chords move. So is that the thing or or is it the lyric? Maybe it needs to be the lyric on this song, this song, this song, the lyric is super important. So what that does is it informs you that that's the thing I need to magnify and make bigger so that the audience really experiences what that thing.

So like I sometimes I've used in the past, like a, as an example, played a few songs, you know, pop songs we all know, or you know, rock songs or whatever, and asked the question, well what did we think? The thing in this song is the biggest and easiest for the audience to connect with. And one of the songs I I would play was In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins.

And what's the thing on that song that everybody knows when it happens? You know, it's, The drum grief, you know, and then the drums, you know? Mm-hmm. . So if you were doing a cover of that song, what might you do with that song to make that the moment? And I don't think I ever worked with an artist on it, maybe, but you know what, if you brought out like a drum for everybody on the stage and you made this song about the.

And at that point in the song, everybody grabs sticks and everybody plays that Go, go, go. You know, the entire band just drops their instruments and all of a sudden this huge big drum fill takes over and a big, huge groove. You know, who knows? But it would then become something that's visual. It would also be audible, you know, and it's about that thing that everybody has been waiting for as soon as the song starts.

It's asking the question, how do I create a moment? Is figuring out what's the thing in the song that most everybody's going to? Oh yeah, that's it. That's it. Oh yeah, that's it. And you're asking the question, not what I like. You're asking what are most of the people on the audience, what are they gonna think this song is about?

So even when it comes to your original material That's right. You're having to really kind of take off your artist, writer, producer hat, set it down for a. and then go stand outside. And sometimes you need to ask a friend or something. What about this song is the thing that you like the most? What's the thing that hits you as the biggest piece of it that you like the most?

Or what do you remember when you think about this song? And by doing that, it helps you key into what the non-musician values about.

Casey Combest: And yeah, I, I think just to reframe this a little bit, if you're listening right now, and Renee, you've mentioned this right before we started, that this is work. So if you're listening right now and you're like, oh man, that, that's a lot of work, of course it is.

But it's work worth doing. It's important work. And again, I love that that. Paradigm shift, if you will, of beginning to think more about the audience than you do yourself. Lane one, one thing I heard you say, and I'm, I hate when people quote me back to myself, so I'm probably gonna botch this , but you said something to the nature of, of most people, you know, if you're, I think it was when you were talking about the value of looking at your audience is.

It's often that someone's only meaningful interaction that week might be when you look at them from the stage. And man, that just meant a, a lot to me. Can you talk a little more about things we can do from the stage to make people feel valuable, make them feel cared about? Make them feel like they're a Yeah, they're a part of

Lang Bliss: something.

Yeah. So the, the piece in terms of how do people connect has to do. how you, like, if we were to meet, for instance, for the first time, Casey, and I walked up to you and I was either really over the top in your face, loud, you know, even if it's gregarious in a good way, you know but I'm over the top. I might back off from you just because it's too much information.

I'm not sure how to process who you are and what you want, where this thing is. You know? Yeah. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Just for comparison, if I was to walk up to you quiet, not looking at you in the face, kind of head down, really not paying attention to you, then you, you might have even the same reaction, meaning, I don't know that I wanna be engaged with this because I don't know who this person is.

They act weird, , you know, I don't know what, where this is going. So on stage, what you're really trying to be is somebody who is pleasant. Meeting the audience where they are now. There's qualitative, you know, questions you ask and how do you do that, and all of that. But I hate to use a a a cliche-ish way of saying this, but you know, you treat others as you would like to be treated yourself.

And so when you're on the stage, what you're trying to be is somebody who's, who's pleasant easy to connect with, and that happens. through your facial expression, your body language you know, how present are you? One of the simple, really simple things that, like I said earlier, the like two to three songs in, if the band has nobody's moved, then there's a good chance that the audience is gonna disconnect.

Well, a very simple thing that happens in those first three songs, for instance, is the lead singer taking the microphone stand and moving it out of the. and not standing in that spot covered, so to speak, by a mic stand. Now that seems like a really maybe over overstated simple thing would be like, why would a mic stand seem to like be covering somebody up, but.

it's, it's little things like that by moving a mic stand out of the way and the lead singer holding the mic in their hand and now looking sincerely into the audience. And we break the audience up into zones, places where you're gonna specifically look at people you're using one-on-one un eye contact.

Your body is open. It's not covered by anything. And what that sort of exudes is confidence. and yet a willingness to be open at the same time and those kinds of things when we see them open people up to the possibility that maybe that's somebody I could get to know and like they seem like a likable person and, and that confidence and sort of the confidence comes from knowing who you are on the stage. and your preparation.

There's a few different things, but we always tend to connect to people who look confident but are at rest and peace with who they are. And so when you can sort of develop that in your onstage presence, then you open up the possibility for so many more people to wanna connect to you. and that's when they sort of know their automatic response. What happens at the end of any song that they like and everybody goes, yay, you know, applause. Right. Well that happens because they're comfortable and want to respond to you, who've shown them confidence and that you, you're supposed to be up here.

I'm happy to be up here. I don't think I'm all that in a bag of chips. I, this is just my who I. , I get to be myself up here. And when you can be that, then this comes really easy for them because they're, you've not made it about what you do. And then the comparisons can start. But if you make it about who you are, there's only one you and they'll never have to compare you to somebody else. They just experience you for who you are. And that's when relationship happens.

Casey Combest: That's great, guys. Before we let you, you guys go, and in a moment we're gonna let our listeners know how they can tap into more of this wealth of knowledge that you guys have. As you can see, it's very clear. That lane and Renee just have a ton of knowledge around this area, but I do want to hear more about y'all's music.

And I think I mentioned from before we started recording that we were gonna talk about that first and then I got sidetracked, so sorry. But do, do tell our listeners a little bit about what you guys are doing and I might have a few more specific questions that we can tie in there before we were out.

Lang Bliss: Yeah, yeah.

Renee Bliss: Well, we just released a single in the middle of September and he had a really cool thing happen. Couple things actually cool happened from that. We were we had a feature in the Sweetwater customer Spotlight, which is great cuz I mean, Lang and I joke

Lang Bliss: about this well in. . People don't know.

Sweetwater is probably the biggest online music store in the world, but, and

Renee Bliss: we have sent some people's kids to college from the amount of beer and stuff we've bought from that place. But it's also, it's my hometown. They, they're located up in Fort Wayne. So we are actually, you know, Lang and I are, we, we kind of joke, we joke, but seriously joking.

It's like we actually have a show at Sweetwater coming up here real soon in October and it's, You know, we've been rehearsing our show and it's like, we can't tell, or he's not gonna, he's not gonna tell other artists, musicians what to do that we aren't engaged in ourselves in doing. And I'm telling you it is, it's a challenge.

Well, when you, when you're trying to think about your show, I'm tying back to what Lang said and the way he's talking. It's a lot bigger than coming up with a song. With a song list. It's a lot more involved in that. If you really want to, if you really wanna leave impact with people that's bigger than the artistry and bigger than them, it's like developing that.

You know, that relationship cuz you want those people to join you on the journey and keep going with you. The journey.

Lang Bliss: So, so we had the single come out, the interview occurred and that's if, if, if anybody's interested, I'm sure you probably could, you know, include the links. But they did what's called a customer spotlight, which means we've been with customers for a long time and they just, they interviewed us about our music, not about our studio.

Renee Bliss: Right.

Lang Bliss: Which is often or the gear. They did include some of the gear stuff, but and then we are playing up there on the 19th mm-hmm. So that's kind of some things that have been going on and we're just, we're actually releasing the full seven song album. I'm not sure what it'll be coming out in the next couple weeks to a right.

Renee Bliss: It, it's coming out this fall and people can keep up with us on our website or socials.

Lang Bliss: Or blissbliss.com. Mm-hmm. We had a, with the single we released, we also released a video. It's for a song called Drive. So we've got that on our website, on our YouTube channel. Yeah, I- I hope that covers. Yeah. Yeah.

Casey Combest: Yeah. That's great. And I, I sort of want to ask you guys about nuggets that you guys put in the show, but I think we should just leave it, is go see BlissBliss Live. Like they're gonna have some great surprises for you. Fun. It's a fun thing. And you know, if someone's listening and. Interested in hey, I really wanna learn more about this cuz I, I know one of the things on my list we didn't even get to is talking about the song order and the importance of what songs you do you know, in those first few little rhythm there.

Where can people find out more, reach out to you and get some more advice and coaching?

Lang Bliss: Yes. So I've got a website and I'm gonna have to spell it. And once again, trust Casey to put the right link in, in the description. But I have a. as well as I have a Facebook page, which I'm, I need to spend more time on my Facebook page, but I'm also, I have a YouTube channel where I've got quite a number of videos listed and I'm gonna be developing that as well.

But yeah, so my website is www dot different world productions. It's just spelled a little odd, and I, and I think I've learned the hard way that I should have just spelled it normal, but at any rate, even if you spell it the right way, it'll take you to, to the. But it's spelled D I F F R E N T W I R L D productions.

So it's diff Rent World with an i productions.com. But if you spell it right, you know, like different world with an O, it'll still take you there, . So and then on that page, if you, if you're specifically interested in having me work with you, I have a couple of like introductory offers that. basically an hour consultation or a two hour consultation.

But I've also got a form there that you can fill out and just, Hey, I'm interested in working on my show, or whatever. So, kind of a few different ways in which you can connect with me and my email is lang@diffrentwirldproductions also the Facebook page is facebook.com/diffrentwirldproductions and the YouTube channel. youtube.com/different world productions. So Lang,

Casey Combest: Renee, thank you guys so much for sharing so generously with us today.

Lang Bliss: Thank you, Casey.

Renee Bliss: Thanks.

Lang Bliss: Blessings on your work, my friend. We love the studio. Yeah, we do. Very cool. It was very cool.

Casey Combest: Yeah. Thanks so much guys, and thank you guys so much for listening to another episode of the Blue Sky Studios podcast. Have a great day everyone.