0:00

Crank it. It's the Zach Sang Show. Hi,

0:04

beautiful human. I'm Zach. That's Dan.

0:06

Welcome to the studio. Pete Montezingo.

0:08

Yo. Hi. Whoo.

0:12

Two things. I

0:14

actually like a bunch of things, dude. What's... How

0:17

long have you been awake for? How'd

0:20

you know? I

0:22

heard rumors and rumbling that he's been awake for

0:24

72 hours. It's

0:26

72 hours, so that's why I'm drinking

0:28

an energy drink. Why? I'm

0:31

editing my music video. I have control issues. So

0:33

I'm like, oh, I'll just edit the video and,

0:35

you know, I got in the weeds and

0:38

here we are. I haven't slept. What

0:40

does it genuinely mean to get into the weeds? Like

0:43

basically, you know, down the rabbit hole.

0:45

So I have like all these

0:47

like special effects that I'm doing and like, you

0:49

know, now I'm taking it to the next level.

0:52

What does that mean? It means instead of just,

0:55

you know, like a special effect here, now for

0:57

some reason I'm going

1:00

underneath the ground and now I'm underground and I mean,

1:02

it's just like insane. And so I'm like, I have

1:04

to do this. I can't go back now.

1:07

Okay. Do you have anybody editing

1:09

with you or literally just you in a room?

1:12

Me and one other person. Okay. And

1:14

why do you not take breaks? Who's

1:17

imposing a deadline that's this strict? I don't

1:19

take breaks. I don't like breaks. When I

1:21

sit there at the computer, like I'm in

1:23

it, you know, like I can't move. I

1:25

won't like take a phone call. I can't,

1:28

I can't, you know, like multitask

1:30

unless I'm completely done with the one thing.

1:33

So I mean, I

1:35

won't even eat. So it's insane. Is

1:37

that like ADHD or something? Like,

1:41

because like your fear of like

1:43

not totally focusing means you may never come back to

1:45

it because you'll have a thousand other things. Exactly. No,

1:49

that's definitely what it is because as soon as I'm gone,

1:51

then I'm never interested in going back. I'll never get done.

1:53

Yeah. You move on. Do

1:56

you have ADHD? Yeah. We also have

1:58

the same birthday. So I'm like really interested. That's somebody

2:00

who, like, the rock has our birthday.

2:02

Wait, really? Yeah, May 2nd. And

2:05

you're three years older than I am. But

2:07

we're close. We don't talk about that. Sorry, sorry,

2:10

sorry, sorry. My bad. No, I'm

2:12

just kidding. No, but I've never actually, like,

2:14

talked to somebody who has my same birthday.

2:16

Yeah, that's weird. Yeah, that's weird. So,

2:18

you're a Taurus. Yeah, I'm a Taurus. I

2:21

believe in the signs, you know? Yeah,

2:23

absolutely. The moon, the stars, the

2:25

oceans, whatever the fuck. You believe in that stuff?

2:27

Oh, 100%. Yeah, really. It's

2:30

like all my relationships with

2:32

anybody are always perfectly matched

2:34

with, like, the opposing sign, you

2:36

know? Like my mom's a Scorpio. We

2:38

have the most complicated relationship, and it's like that

2:40

makes sense, Taurus and Scorpio. That's

2:42

actually the most fulfilling relationship to have. One

2:44

of the most fulfilling relationships to have is

2:47

a Taurus and a Scorpio. Yeah. Interesting.

2:50

It's very weird. But then my brother's

2:52

a cancer, and I'm like, mmm. You

2:54

don't get along. Is

2:56

your brother, he's also a teacher? Yeah. It's

2:59

really interesting, your life. You've been going after fame for

3:01

a hot second, my guy. Yep. It's

3:04

true. It's true. It really is.

3:07

Like, you know, like, let's call it what it is. I

3:10

had no idea that you made it to the high ranks of

3:12

Wipeout. Oh my god. No. You

3:15

are just going for the X Factor. Yes, dude. He

3:17

made it to, like, he came in second place on

3:19

Wipeout. Yeah. Oh my

3:21

god. They called me Smack Ephron. Oh my god. PTSD.

3:25

Sorry. But it's true. We're

3:27

talking to his celebrity. I

3:29

found the video. I'm watching it. It's,

3:33

like, embarrassing. You

3:35

just explained to me, like, your

3:37

first understanding of what fame

3:40

was and is, like, in

3:43

your life. Do you remember? Well,

3:45

yeah. I think all it was is that, you know,

3:48

my whole family were little people except me. And so

3:50

I was just always jealous that they got all the

3:52

attention. And so I just wanted to go after everyone

3:54

looking at me because everyone would look at them. And

3:57

I think that's where it, like, started when I was probably,

3:59

like, five. And then from there,

4:01

it just got complicated and interesting. Can

4:04

you talk to me

4:06

about what it means to live in

4:09

a family where everybody is looking

4:11

at them? And nobody really

4:14

is looking at you, but in almost

4:16

every situation. And that's

4:18

hard for all parties involved, right?

4:20

Because I don't think you ever

4:22

get to an age where gawking like that

4:25

or looking in any capacity

4:29

is normal or tolerable, no matter how

4:31

used to it one becomes. Yeah,

4:33

it's interesting because I remember I would always

4:36

go out to the grocery store or to

4:38

a doctor's appointment or something, and I always have

4:40

to reintroduce myself because they thought I was just

4:43

some random person taking along with a family or

4:45

a family friend. And I'm like,

4:47

I'm like eight, you know? So

4:50

it was like, it was

4:52

weird. But then

4:54

it's also great because then I was able to

4:56

like spy, you know? So

4:59

at the grocery store, if people would talk

5:01

crap or something like, oh, look at those short

5:04

people or whatever, then I would have

5:06

no problem going up into their face and being

5:08

like, that's my family. Do you remember

5:10

the first time you realized your family was different? Yeah,

5:15

actually. It was when I like

5:17

went to school for the first

5:19

time, like preschool, like kindergarten,

5:21

like early elementary school. I

5:24

remember looking up at the

5:27

parents and being like, that's so weird

5:29

that people look up. Like

5:32

I would just look straight, you know? So

5:36

it was always interesting. And my mom couldn't hold me

5:38

until I was after one year old. And

5:40

like my feet would dangle off her

5:42

lap and she'd be like, oh. And

5:45

I'm like, that'd be – and I'm like so jealous

5:47

that all the dads were like swinging the kids in

5:49

the air and stuff, and I'm like, I

5:52

want to do that. But

5:54

yeah, it's

5:56

interesting. But to me, it's just normal. So it's

5:58

weird to me that – most

6:01

like 99.9% of the

6:03

population has no idea what that's like.

6:06

Literally. Like that you are very...

6:08

and it's interesting because it's not until

6:10

later in life do you realize that fame is

6:12

actually gonna come from who you are in

6:15

your life because you do outwardly

6:17

chase it right? It's wipe

6:19

out, it's X-factor, you're in more

6:22

than one boy group at a certain point

6:24

in life. Oh my god you're in one

6:27

group that like one day you name it

6:29

and the next month you're disbanded. Like

6:32

there's... you're quite the timeline... That's

6:37

hard out here man. I

6:45

gotta give you the most credit in the

6:47

world because I do believe that so

6:50

much a part of what it

6:52

means to be any sort of

6:54

artist or creator is consistency and

6:56

this ability to use the nose

6:58

as fuel and the silence or

7:01

just people ignoring you or looking

7:03

past you or just

7:05

really not giving you any

7:07

time of day using that as fuel to

7:09

continue. That's like really hard to do

7:11

and it's really what separates people from those

7:14

who make it and those who don't. Yeah and

7:16

I learned that too I thought everyone just had

7:18

this fuel for you know that and

7:21

then I realized oh wait no I just you know have

7:23

a lot of a lot

7:25

of people that I want to prove wrong you

7:27

know and that really is like the

7:29

fuel you know it's not even like prove wrong maybe but

7:32

it's just like no I can

7:35

you know. Do you feel like you can or have

7:38

you? I mean now

7:40

it's different you know like that's more when

7:42

I was like younger you

7:44

know but yeah

7:47

I feel like it's really just comes

7:49

down to I mean now

7:51

we're getting philosophical but it just comes down to being

7:53

happy you know like yeah I would like I used

7:55

to chase fame and then now I'm like okay

7:57

how can I just enjoy life

8:01

and then also make a living, you know.

8:05

But also like inspire people and

8:07

inspire myself and you know ADHD

8:09

always wants me to do new projects like you

8:11

know I'm singing again and so it's like

8:13

I can never just relax.

8:17

At what point though do

8:19

you realize that putting

8:22

like the the

8:25

future of your success and career in the hands of

8:27

other people and maybe

8:30

not in the hands but like reliant on

8:32

the participation of others. Let's just say that

8:34

right like other people buying in and supporting

8:36

you and like giving you a

8:38

chance. When do you realize that like it's

8:42

actually you that is the

8:45

story and it's the apartment that you

8:47

happen to be living in across the

8:49

street from a fucking hotel. You know

8:51

everything about me. No it's really interesting.

8:55

It's just very fascinating that like you like at

8:57

one point you're trying to become a

9:00

singer in a boy group and then the

9:02

next you you're literally crashing

9:04

drones on into hotels and

9:07

it's getting incredible traction on

9:09

the internet. But

9:12

it's a friend that helps you with TikTok right you go

9:14

to somebody who's also viral on the platform. No.

9:17

What was it? Wait what

9:19

do you mean? How do you get

9:21

to TikTok? Like really like when did you realize

9:23

that it was you that was the story or

9:25

you that was the thing? So I was in

9:28

a boy group and my label was in

9:30

Nashville and they just moved us out to

9:32

Nashville and we were like finally starting a

9:34

tour and then COVID happened and they're like

9:37

and we'll go home and I was like fuck my

9:39

one shot you know like I finally thought I was

9:41

on the brink of it you know and then I

9:43

just euphoria. No

9:46

this was five well yeah it's hard. There's a

9:48

lot of them we got it's hard to keep

9:50

track you know. You guys are insane. The way

9:52

you spell euphoria was really wild. We thought it

9:54

was so cool. We're like yeah we're different and

9:56

like cool. So embarrassing. Oh

10:00

God. But so anyways, they sent us home and I

10:02

was like, well, my career is over. My life's over.

10:04

I've been doing this for way too long and it's

10:06

time to give up. And it was that mindset the

10:08

first week I was like, I'm just gonna post a

10:10

video on this like TikTok app. And

10:12

I just did something at my apartment and I have a ball

10:15

pit in my apartment. And that

10:17

went viral because I don't

10:19

know, ball pits are awesome. So you had

10:21

this before you were like an online creator?

10:24

Yeah. Oh, you're genuinely just weird, eh? Yeah. God. You're

10:26

already with a weirdo. It's not a lie. No, I

10:28

know. But like some people are like, oh, you know,

10:30

you have a ball pit in your living room because

10:32

that's what the internet tells you to do. I

10:35

mean, I mean, yeah. I

10:39

just feel like you inherently wanted a ball pit.

10:41

Where was it in your house? So

10:43

you have to climb up this pipe ladder

10:45

that I made through like my Narnia room.

10:48

It's like insane. But

10:50

basically, I'm just a big kid at heart. So

10:53

explain this to me. You go from Nashville

10:55

to LA and you move

10:57

into an apartment downtown LA. Yeah.

11:00

This is where you build a ball pit. Yeah. Okay.

11:03

It's a high ceilings, you know. Sick.

11:05

Oh, it's like a loft. Yeah, exactly.

11:07

Interesting. Interesting. Okay.

11:10

So the first thing you posted your ball

11:12

pit. And that

11:14

obviously is viral because obviously who the fuck has

11:16

a ball pit in their house? I

11:19

don't know why no one does, but why did

11:21

you really want that? I

11:24

mean, I don't know. I'm just a big kid at heart.

11:26

Don't you miss going to McDonald's and playing in the ball

11:28

pit? No. No. You're

11:30

all filled with germs. You ever reach to

11:32

the bottom and pull out something weird and

11:34

be like a happy chicken nugget? It's all

11:36

like, you got like bones, like human remains.

11:39

What are you not going in your ball pit? Like

11:41

who's in that with you? Oh yeah,

11:43

that's for next time. I'll... Let's

11:46

say, hey, welcome to my house. Let's hang out.

11:48

Had a great dinner with you. You want to

11:51

come in, like, get comfortable and watch Netflix from

11:53

my ball pit? Kind of cool.

11:56

Listen, you guys are welcome anytime. I'm

11:59

okay. I'll go check it

12:01

out. You definitely would. Are you

12:03

still sleeping, and you're still sleeping in that like

12:06

ice cave type situation? Yeah. Can you explain that

12:08

one? What? So we

12:10

come, like in downtown LA they came with, my

12:13

unit came with armoires, and I saw

12:16

the top off on one of them, and

12:19

I hung a rope from one of the water pipes. And

12:22

I just thought, like, I don't

12:24

exercise as much as I should, and

12:26

I don't want to force myself,

12:28

like I don't want to get myself into a

12:30

situation where I'm having a one-night stand. So obviously

12:32

the only way around this is to like

12:36

climb up a rope, through a wardrobe, into

12:39

a little hole on like, you

12:41

know, the top of my apartment, like loft

12:44

area. And that's

12:46

where I slept for a while. But now I

12:48

have a bed. Oh, congratulations. Can

12:51

I see a visual of whatever the

12:54

fuck you're talking about? What? What?

12:56

What? You sleep in, is it like

12:58

a tunnel? Pretty

13:00

much. You sleep in it? It's like

13:04

this, but it goes all the way back. Like,

13:07

I would wake up and hit my

13:09

head in the morning on

13:12

the cement, like, ceiling, and then the first

13:14

time actually that I slept up there I

13:16

got a concussion. Because,

13:18

like, I woke up at 6 a.m. and here.

13:21

Why are we doing this? We're

13:24

watching you get into your ice cave. You

13:27

sleep in this now? This looks— No,

13:29

not anymore. Not anymore. Okay. Healthy.

13:31

But you also said something we completely missed. You

13:33

said you did this to prevent yourself from having

13:35

a one-night stand. This

13:38

is what you gotta do? I don't

13:40

think so, brother. I ain't creative. I

13:42

think there's a bunch of other reasons

13:44

why people— And there he

13:46

is, off to bed. He's gone. Yeah,

13:48

because that's exactly what you do to prevent people

13:50

from staying the night. That's exactly

13:52

what you do to get people to run

13:55

away. That's crazy. You're interesting, eh?

13:58

I mean— I

14:00

feel like I'm past that phase a little bit, but

14:02

where are we today? What's different back to the ball

14:04

pit? But you have

14:06

a ball pit still oh, yeah, that's never leave it By

14:12

the way party with the weirdo is your record yeah,

14:14

why are we going back into music now? because

14:18

I realized like Music is

14:20

actually I think what I'm the most passionate about like

14:24

I feel like the videos I do are

14:26

great and It's

14:28

I've been able to sustain and build a career

14:30

and it's been awesome in so many ways But

14:33

I I like I

14:35

just feel the need to always keep expressing myself

14:37

in different ways and I feel like for music

14:40

it's something that I know that I'm comfortable with and

14:42

I Want to give

14:45

it like an actual chance because I had tried for

14:47

like six years, so This

14:50

is like my time

14:52

for myself to try and prove you know that I can I

14:54

can do it or

14:56

not What was it about

14:58

music that became a vehicle for you initially

15:01

um I don't know I think it was just the boy band

15:03

thing because I wanted like a brotherhood And

15:05

I wanted to feel I think kind of goes back to like

15:08

the door family thing because I would always see

15:12

people like connecting who are similar and With

15:17

the same goal, and I don't know is that

15:19

camaraderie that I was always craving and then through

15:21

that I realized Oh shit actually

15:23

like love music And

15:26

I grew up doing music. I was

15:28

I sang since I was like

15:30

14 and Play

15:32

trombone like my whole life And

15:36

I've just felt like I've been good at it. It just feels

15:39

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16:15

really wild. I do feel like you've lived

16:17

a life where you

16:20

wanted attention and eyes to be on

16:22

you but for the right reasons. It's

16:25

so interesting for someone to look at a career

16:29

in music specifically as it relates to

16:31

a boy group or a band and

16:34

want it for the idea of camaraderie,

16:36

companionship and this idea that you're with

16:38

people who look

16:41

similar, do similar things, really

16:44

are connected by this similar thing. See,

16:47

it wasn't until I was older until I

16:49

realized that because I really thought it

16:51

was just music at the beginning and then a couple years

16:54

later I looked back and I was like, oh wait, you

16:56

have necrotherapy. Yeah, wild.

17:01

There is something that I don't think people

17:03

think about, right? Do

17:08

you see yourself in your mom though? Because you look like your

17:10

mom. Yeah, and we're

17:12

very similar. Totally, and when I watch your

17:15

videos you act very, very

17:17

much the same. It's pretty wild.

17:19

Yeah. You

17:22

can try to make the case that you don't look like

17:24

your family but you look like your mom. You

17:27

really do. I mean, I teased my mom

17:29

though I'm like, are you sure there wasn't a milkman

17:31

because not only am I tall but also I look

17:33

nothing like my dad. Just

17:36

like throwing it out there, like maybe one day

17:38

you can tell me but no, she wouldn't. There's

17:41

a 75% chance that you were going to

17:43

be a dwarf. Do you

17:45

think about life that way ever and what that could have

17:47

meant for you? Yeah, and I

17:49

think that's why I feel so passionate about the things

17:51

that I do and what I make

17:53

content about and music about because I feel like I'm –

17:56

it just makes me feel like I'm here for a purpose,

17:58

whether it's in my head or not. It helps motivate

18:00

me to speak

18:07

about things that I'm passionate about, I guess. I

18:10

really think you should see it as being here

18:12

for a purpose. You have 18 million people who

18:14

are tuned into you just on YouTube alone. And

18:16

it's a lot of younger people. I

18:19

think you do have a purpose here that's larger.

18:21

And I think you're educating

18:23

people on what it means to be

18:26

different, but yet so deeply the same.

18:28

Right. Also, I've

18:31

been realizing that over the last couple of

18:33

years, so

18:35

many little people creators, for example,

18:38

don't really get taken

18:41

seriously for some reason. People

18:43

don't view them sometimes as human, I hate

18:45

to say, but I really feel like that's

18:48

a lot of it. And so when

18:51

I make videos about it with my mom

18:53

or with my family, it's always been so

18:55

nice to get,

18:59

it's like I can advocate for them

19:01

and people will unfortunately,

19:04

but fortunately take it more seriously.

19:09

And I've really felt like that has been

19:11

such a good thing. And

19:13

I've been like really excited about

19:15

all the things that I can

19:17

help teach people about dwarfism specifically.

19:21

Because I feel like most people just

19:24

don't know anything about dwarfism really, except

19:26

you know, oh, it's they're little. It's

19:28

like, no, there's just so much more

19:30

to it. And if you really understood,

19:32

then you could maybe have some empathy.

19:34

What do you wish people understood? Because

19:36

the history that Lilly will be going

19:38

through for centuries is really, really dark

19:41

and really tragic and really

19:44

unfair. And people don't even know that,

19:46

you know? And by the way, we're talking about it. So your

19:48

TikTok for you page should throw some

19:50

video on your feed from a

19:54

creator who understands

19:56

firsthand. I see videos

19:59

sometimes of like the history. It's

20:01

really, it's hard, but what do

20:03

you wish people understood that they don't? That

20:06

they're just like everyone else. It's like everyone's

20:08

always focused on what do we call them? How should we

20:10

do this? How should we do that? And

20:12

it's like, no, just treat them like a normal person. They're

20:14

just people. And I

20:16

really think people, for

20:19

the most part, have a hard

20:21

time just recognizing that. And

20:24

I don't know why. Maybe it's because when

20:26

they view an older person,

20:28

they're supposed to be like an

20:30

authority figure, but they're looking down. Maybe it's

20:32

more of a psychological thing for them. But I don't know. My

20:37

hope is just everybody's able to just be

20:39

nice. What are you trying

20:41

to do with your music in terms of a story and a message?

20:44

Clearly, it's your story. Yeah. I

20:47

don't want to call you a weirdo. You can.

20:49

Yeah, but you may be the one that you're

20:52

talking about. Well,

20:56

that's the thing. It's been a

20:58

really interesting last couple of years with everything for

21:00

me. And I'm still

21:03

trying to figure out exactly my endgame and where

21:05

I want to go and everything. Big

21:07

picture. And

21:10

I'm just now kind of this year coming into

21:12

the idea

21:15

that, no, I feel

21:17

actually the same as my family. Oh,

21:19

wait. That's actually the same as my

21:21

friends. Oh, wait. That's actually

21:23

the same as everybody. Everybody feels like they're weird

21:25

or feels like they don't fit in in some

21:27

way. And it's like, okay, well, we should actually

21:29

embrace that because once we do, we realize that

21:31

could be actually a superpower because

21:34

we see our perspective on life different than

21:36

everyone else. So if we're able

21:39

to just run with that, then I feel

21:42

like it only will help. So

21:45

do you have an album

21:47

ready to go or are you just doing

21:49

song by song? What are you thinking?

21:52

So right now it's going to be kind

21:54

of a waterfall release. So every like six

21:56

to eight weeks, there'll be another single that

21:59

releases. And I don't

22:01

know, we're just trying to figure out what

22:03

might work. So

22:06

we're just kind of putting stuff out there

22:08

and testing it. But I wanted to do

22:10

this one first specifically because this is what

22:12

I am passionate about, just being weird. And

22:16

yeah, I don't know. I don't know what it looks like down the road,

22:19

but I have been

22:21

in the studio a lot. So and it's been

22:23

really fun and refreshing and this new creative process.

22:26

And it's just really rejuvenating. What

22:28

about you is weird? What about me

22:30

is weird? Yeah. I

22:33

don't know. Cause I don't really think it's that weird. I guess it's

22:35

me. Everything that you thought was

22:37

weird, I guess. And you've been awake for 72 hours. And

22:40

yeah, that, I mean, that's crazy. Have

22:42

you ever done that? No. And

22:45

you're a tourist and you've never done that? No, I've

22:47

been awake for like a day. Well, maybe actually I,

22:49

I would crash

22:51

though. Eventually I can function on three hours

22:53

of sleep. Like what I would do is

22:55

sleep for three hours, get up and then

22:57

work another 18 hours. Uh,

22:59

that's what I could, I would do that all the time. And

23:02

then sometimes if I like honestly

23:05

took Adderall at the wrong time of the day. You're

23:07

going to bring up Adderall too. Yeah. I'd be screwed.

23:09

I was like, do I do that here? No, it's

23:11

fine. There's, there's many moments like when I was, I

23:14

worked at Nickelodeon for many years and I would

23:17

just work crazy hours on crazy schedules. I'd

23:19

travel all the time and

23:21

I would just like, if I took

23:23

Adderall like, like, like 20 minutes too

23:25

late, Oh, I'm screwed. And then

23:27

I'm not sleeping and then I have to

23:29

wake up and be on camera at 5

23:31

AM. If you don't eat your, it's a whole

23:33

mess. It's a whole mess. Do I remember

23:35

one time I did, I probably went three production days

23:38

without eating anything and the head of the network came

23:40

up to me and was like, you need to eat

23:42

something and she literally had somebody go

23:44

and get me a chicken sandwich. Yeah.

23:46

Did you eat it? Yeah, I did. Kind of like

23:49

I took a pity bike, but like, whatever. Yeah.

23:51

So I've never, I haven't done that a long time

23:53

though. It's been a long time. You

23:56

do this often? Yeah. No, I

23:59

do this a lot. because I'm still trying

24:01

to figure out like my team building and

24:03

everything so a lot of it is really

24:05

just myself in a lot of ways or

24:07

it's just you know my problem of giving up control so

24:10

you know I'll do this

24:12

to myself but hopefully

24:14

not in the future you've also been going through a

24:16

lot of life to you at the same time yeah

24:18

your mom doing okay that's

24:22

I mean it's on and

24:24

off like yeah she had three

24:26

surgeries the last one was super

24:28

promising and we're still really optimistic

24:31

but she has been

24:34

like starting to not feel great again and this

24:37

has been a lot. Life

24:39

is hard dude aging is really hard yeah

24:41

tell me about it. Like

24:44

watching our like it's watching watching

24:46

my parents age is really difficult yeah it's

24:49

like really difficult how do you cope with

24:51

it I don't know I you

24:53

know I think a part of me like I'm just just

24:55

always being honest like a part of me probably distance

24:57

myself out of like this I don't

25:01

know fear coping like a bunch

25:03

of things there you know yeah

25:06

but that's not the answer right the answer is really

25:08

to be there and be present and to only

25:12

do everything you can right

25:14

yeah and that's all you what you can control

25:16

because you don't want to regret it either you

25:18

know 100% and but

25:20

it's like it's hard you know it still feels

25:22

weird because I don't know about you but I

25:24

just feel like I'm still a kid at heart

25:26

like I feel like I'm 12 years old and

25:28

it's like my parents are still you know young

25:31

and so it just kind of creeps up on us does

25:34

and it's like when you least expect it

25:36

then once it hits kind of just keeps

25:39

rolling yeah you haven't dealing with it

25:41

for the last year it's been really something else it's

25:44

it's something that like you get like you use

25:46

something up perfectly like you never really think it's

25:48

gonna be something and then it just boom

25:51

yeah and then on that like everything's really kind of

25:53

different from that moment forward you know yeah do your

25:55

parents live in town no they live on the other

25:57

side of the country so it's like particularly

26:00

really difficult. So

26:03

it's a lot to balance. Let's rely on other

26:05

siblings, it's the whole thing. But

26:07

life is really difficult. Yeah. Is art

26:09

at all of an outlet? Do

26:11

you see it as such? Or like, how do

26:14

you view music and or anything that

26:16

you really make? I

26:20

feel like that's the only thing that I know how to do

26:22

is create and music

26:25

and just feeling inspired

26:27

and maybe as partly the ADHD as well,

26:29

because you know, we can't do anything unless

26:31

we're interested. Totally. And so I feel

26:35

like it is always the creative outlet.

26:38

But it's always difficult because it's like at one

26:40

point does a creative outlet because when it's your

26:42

job, then it's like you got to figure out

26:44

another creative outlet within the creative outlet. So

26:47

it's trying to navigate, at

26:49

least for me. But do

26:52

you see music as a challenge? Or

26:54

do you see it as a passion? Both.

26:57

I think it's a challenge because

27:00

I've done this for so long. So I'm like, I feel

27:02

a little bit like

27:04

tired from trying for all those years

27:06

with my previous groups. And so I

27:09

know how like I know how it

27:11

worked. And I know it's different now.

27:13

But it's very intimidating still. But

27:16

it's also great because it does,

27:19

you know, rejuvenate me. And it helps me

27:21

like see things differently. Instead of just making

27:23

another video or doing something else. It's like,

27:25

oh, this is makes

27:27

my heart happy. And it's your

27:29

story. Yeah. And you're doing

27:31

it from a totally different place. Yeah. Yeah.

27:34

And it feels more authentic in a way because it's

27:37

like, just me instead of, you

27:40

know, attaching like the dwarfism

27:42

thing or some

27:44

other things that still are me. But this

27:46

is I feel like purely from my heart.

27:48

And that also helps when I go into

27:51

the writing rooms, because I'm able to like

27:54

really share and be vulnerable. And I

27:56

feel like that's also kind of therapeutic. Oh,

27:58

it is. What are

28:00

we doing? What are you thinking? So take us into the room

28:02

when you were writing Party with the Weirdo. How did it start?

28:04

Where did it come from? I know it's you, but where did

28:06

it start? So I

28:08

was in there with two

28:10

other songwriters, Harv and Felicia,

28:13

and I was kind of

28:15

intimidated because I know Harv had worked with Justin

28:17

Bieber and some other big names, and I was

28:19

like, oh my God. Yeah,

28:22

I'm like, I'm so scared. I'm like, ah, cool, dress cool.

28:24

You know, like, what's up, dude? I'm like, hey, what's up?

28:29

And so everything

28:31

that they wanted, what we were talking about, it

28:33

was really hard because they were like, make it

28:35

cool, make it, you know, different. And I'm like,

28:37

what if we just make it like, like,

28:41

fun and like,

28:44

not that serious, you know, because I feel like

28:46

the world is just also insane right now. So

28:49

if we just have something where people can just feel

28:51

free, that was kind of my goal. And

28:54

so then we came up with Party with the

28:56

Weirdo. And at first it was

28:58

actually called Waterbed. And

29:00

it was about kind of just like, I know,

29:03

so random, but it's kind of

29:05

about, it

29:08

was kind of about like the same thing, though. It was just feeling

29:11

free and rolling around, you know, just

29:13

not really making sense. And then we

29:15

thought of lyrics, you

29:18

know, and

29:20

then we changed it to like being

29:22

a weirdo just straight up. And it just felt like

29:24

really good to me. And we kind of just locked

29:26

that and ran with it. So

29:29

like, how many more sessions do you do with those

29:31

guys after that? We did like three

29:34

or four total. Oh, wow. How many

29:36

songs did you get? One

29:39

with them. Because they were also

29:41

my first session. So it was the first

29:43

time I was like going in alone without,

29:45

you know, like a label. What is that

29:47

like? I mean, scary. Do

29:49

you come prepared with anything? I

29:51

mean, I had a binder and a laptop, but I mean,

29:54

I looked like an idiot for sure. Hey,

29:58

guys, you know, your first day of school. Yeah, I'm like,

30:00

I'm gonna do it this way. God.

30:03

It's funny, because Harv rode pizzas for Justin

30:05

Bieber. That's right. So how did you get,

30:07

maybe I missed it, but how did you get connected with him? So

30:10

my manager, music manager, Christiana,

30:12

Duelest Management, she's good

30:14

friends with Mateus, who

30:16

is, I guess, one of

30:18

the guys who reps Harv and Felicia,

30:21

or is very close with them. And

30:24

so, just kind of worked out. Pretty

30:26

cool. Yeah. Yeah.

30:29

How many songs do you have ready to go outside of this one? I

30:33

mean, we have like 20, but I mean,

30:35

I don't know which one

30:37

is next. We're talking about it right now. I

30:41

just, I don't know, because it feels like I just released

30:43

this and she's already like, it's time for the next one.

30:45

And I was like, oh my god, I have to make

30:48

a video today too, you know, so it's just like a

30:50

lot. But

30:52

I think, I think we're on track

30:54

to do another one in seven

30:56

weeks, which I'm nervous about. I

30:59

mean, it's wild. Hopefully this one does

31:01

well, you know, it will. I think your

31:03

audience will translate. You did well with

31:05

your book. Yeah. You

31:08

have a really unique audience that's really young and

31:10

really wide and I think it's

31:12

going to translate. I hope so, man. Yeah,

31:16

I hope so. You built this community. I

31:18

mean, 18 million people on YouTube. What

31:21

is it? 16 million on TikTok or something? Yeah,

31:24

14. That's crazy. 3 million

31:26

on Instagram. Yeah. And

31:28

honestly, like, I don't even know how it happened.

31:30

Like it's insane. I just feel like

31:33

it's not real. To some

31:35

extent. Like when you think about the numbers, how

31:37

do you view it? How

31:40

do you see even your

31:42

notifications tab? I don't click

31:44

on it. I

31:47

don't know. I

31:50

just, I feel like I don't let myself really think

31:52

about it that much because I want

31:55

to just stay focused on the things that are

31:58

inspiring. If I could start going down. like, oh, like

32:00

I'm getting more followers if I do this or this,

32:03

then I feel like it would hinder a lot of

32:05

my creative process. Instead of, what

32:08

is your creative process? Locking

32:10

myself in a dark room late at night

32:13

and just, you

32:15

know, meditating, essentially.

32:18

Are you doing the same sort of process

32:20

for different things you're making? Like,

32:24

do you do the same thing for music that you're doing for, I

32:26

don't know, to come over the video? Yeah. Yeah,

32:29

100%. And

32:31

I feel like that's always been my whole

32:33

life, though. Like, with everything, even like

32:35

homework at school, I would just

32:38

need the same situation for everything in

32:40

order to, like, excel. I'm the

32:42

same way. Really? Yeah, I'm consistent.

32:44

Did I wear the same pair of shoes for like years? Why?

32:47

Because I thought, like, if I didn't wear the same pair of shoes,

32:49

I would fuck up. And then, like, every

32:51

time I would change studios, I would need certain things to

32:53

come with me, because, like, if I didn't have those things,

32:55

I would never be able to do my job. Interesting.

32:58

Yeah, like, I try to apply the

33:00

same thing all the time. So

33:02

are you OCD a little bit, too? Not

33:05

really, because I've smoked weed to kind of,

33:07

like, keep me from being really too crazy

33:09

anal, and, like, obsessed with things. Because

33:12

I used to be, like, more

33:14

asshole tendencies, right? Like, little things would,

33:16

like, little things

33:18

that irked me, and, like, if they weren't

33:20

exactly the same way, it was

33:23

really hard. And then matching that with having to, like,

33:25

find a team, and, like, build a team, and balance

33:27

the whole thing. It's

33:29

definitely a learning process, and it's insane.

33:32

ADD, ADHD, I mean, I had it

33:34

really, you know, I had it. I

33:36

definitely still have it. Yeah,

33:38

it's definitely something that has been a challenge,

33:41

but I also think a weird blessing, you

33:43

know? Yeah. Don't you think

33:45

it's kind of a superpower? Oh, yeah. I mean, when you

33:47

channel it the right way. Right. And

33:49

I am guilty. Yeah, I'm guilty of letting, like, getting

33:52

the best of me. So,

33:54

like, I don't want to, like, be like,

33:56

oh, it's the best thing ever every single day. No,

33:59

I mean, there's waves where it's terrible. and it really

34:01

throws me off and it's hard to communicate

34:03

and hard to process sometimes. How do you

34:05

navigate that though? I

34:07

listen a lot. I try to listen and I try

34:09

to be focused on one thing. The issue is if

34:12

I get really focused on something and then somebody comes

34:14

in and tries to throw focus, it's

34:17

hard for me to not snap at them. Or

34:20

for it to not

34:22

seem like I'm snapping at them. Because sometimes

34:24

I'm not actually snapping. I'm actually just trying

34:27

to maintain focus while trying to also respond

34:29

to them. I

34:32

also think too, I've

34:34

gotten really much better at managing

34:38

my ADHD and ADD by – I won't

34:42

take Adderall because it does change my

34:44

personality in ways. But I've gotten

34:46

really good at being able to – okay, if

34:49

scrolling is what I need to do to just

34:51

stay focused on whatever somebody's telling me, I'm going

34:53

to do it. But I'll retain everything that you're

34:55

telling me. I've tried to figure out

34:57

different ways to keep my mind – do you get what

34:59

I'm saying? Sometimes it actually works

35:01

where my mind works better

35:03

if I'm doing two things at once, but giving

35:06

one thing 10% and the other thing 90%. Absolutely.

35:09

I tell my mom all the time, I have to

35:11

find ways to trick my brain. That's literally what it

35:13

is. She's like, can you come over and clean?

35:15

I'm like, not if you ask me like that. But if you told

35:18

me and you're a little sneaky about it, then

35:20

yes, you show up. No,

35:22

it's interesting. Yeah. Do you

35:25

and your mom just have like a long list of

35:27

video ideas? Or how do you create those? Half

35:31

the time I just spring something on her and she

35:33

has no choice. Do

35:35

you remember the first time you were like, hey, I want you to make

35:37

a video with me for this platform called TikTok? Yes.

35:39

And she had to get ready, make sure

35:41

her makeup was perfect. It looks great in

35:44

every video. She does. She does. But

35:46

I look terrible and I'm like, thanks, mom. Your

35:49

shots great, but I'm just rushing for the daylight here, you know.

35:54

No, but it's part of her charm and I

35:56

love her for it. And I would always tell

35:58

people, growing up... For

36:01

Christmas, it was always a running

36:03

joke that we had to wait

36:05

till noon or 1 o'clock to run out

36:07

to open the stockings and Christmas presents because

36:09

mom had to finish putting on her face

36:11

and she had to leave the pack. My

36:13

dad had to, when they were together, he

36:15

had to walk backwards. She had the whole

36:17

regimen so that it had to

36:19

look perfect and she had to look perfect and her

36:21

kids. I just think

36:24

it's amazing. I think it's hilarious.

36:27

There is something to the fact that over the

36:29

last few years, all you've been doing is gathering

36:32

and filming and documenting memories. You and

36:34

your mom and your family. That's

36:36

true. There is a beautiful side to the whole thing.

36:38

In addition to you probably getting rich. Well,

36:42

I'm a terrible business owner. I

36:44

don't get it. You're a perfectionist and

36:46

you don't have any team. So where

36:48

are you spending money? On

36:51

ball pits. You

36:53

know, things like that. You're rich enough to have a

36:55

ball pit. The book project, I'm

36:57

like, oh, I should have gone through

36:59

a publisher. You did that all yourself?

37:02

Yeah. Oh, that's great. No, the warehouse and

37:04

all these things. Of course I'm not going

37:07

to retain all this because I'm a creative.

37:09

Why would you do that? You're

37:12

really your... No, but you're kind of famous.

37:14

You have a huge following. You could have

37:16

easily gone to anybody and been like, I

37:19

don't know, 50, 60 million

37:21

followers. Can we make a children's book together?

37:23

Right. They probably say yes. But

37:26

see, also, this might be an ADHD thing too, but

37:28

I just get so excited that I have to do

37:30

it now and then a week

37:32

will go by and the whole thing's done. And

37:34

now it's like, oh, it could have actually done

37:36

this the right way. You see, that's

37:39

something I've had to figure out. I've had

37:41

to be okay with coming up with something

37:43

and going 100% into it and

37:45

then having to pull it back and then

37:47

it will find its way. But

37:49

not everything finds its way and that's okay. And that's

37:52

kind of how I determine what is good and what

37:54

isn't. Really? Okay,

37:56

sometimes. Like almost like Menzabee. Yeah, yeah,

37:58

yeah. But then sometimes I have good ideas

38:00

I sit on for years and I'm like, oh my god, that's still a good

38:02

idea. And then when

38:05

I whip it out again, maybe it's the time, maybe it isn't, you

38:07

know what I mean, Dan? Like the

38:09

music thing for me. Exactly. But why now,

38:11

genuinely? Like with everything going on in your

38:13

life and your

38:16

content low being what it is, why

38:18

are we making and releasing music today?

38:21

It just fell into place. It almost felt like a god

38:23

thing to me. So it was

38:26

like I met Christiana, my music manager, at the

38:28

right time and then all the pieces just lined

38:30

up together and it just felt like it worked.

38:33

And I was like, okay, either I do

38:35

this and I take a

38:37

risk and maybe

38:40

I'm not sleeping for 72 hours. But

38:43

the other side of it is I'll have regrets

38:45

and I hate regrets. I will hate

38:48

it if I ever have one. So I just had to give it

38:50

a shot. And like

38:52

I said as well, at the core,

38:55

music is really my heart and soul. So

38:59

if I have that passion, why shouldn't I ever do

39:01

it? You really got

39:04

to do it. I'm excited. I want

39:06

to really experience this artist project, don't

39:08

you? Yeah. Well, are you a weirdo? Yeah.

39:10

Fuck yeah. Then you can join.

39:12

Thank you. When's the music video out? Oh

39:15

my god. I thought it was supposed to be out already. Today. Yeah,

39:18

it was supposed to be out today. I was looking for it because we were told it was going to

39:20

be out before you came in and I was looking at it and I was like, I can't find

39:22

this thing. He's tuning himself. So we're subject.

39:25

I understand that. So what is it coming out?

39:27

I don't need to have it, brother. I

39:29

called Cristiano this morning like, oh my god,

39:31

can we please push this back? You know,

39:33

I was freaking out. But

39:36

it'll be probably beginning of next week or

39:38

mid-next week at some point. But I'm

39:40

so excited about it. It really

39:43

came together. Are you doing your music

39:45

independently too? Yeah. Wow.

39:47

Yeah, that's cool. That you can

39:50

do independently. The book thing, like, someone

39:52

would have paid you in advance for that, bro. Just for

39:54

children's book. Like, I'm an idiot. But also,

39:57

like, you need store distribution

39:59

for children's books. Like you want to

40:01

be where people parents are also be

40:03

like existing already looking for books But

40:06

the good thing though is that it allowed me to

40:09

like like I sold like we're a

40:11

bestseller without anyone knowing so

40:13

we can take that to publishers and Be

40:16

like look now give us like a huge advance because

40:18

we did this by ourselves for your next book Yeah,

40:21

or to you know hand over the rights

40:23

for the first one and you know movie

40:25

out of it Yeah, all of the

40:27

above This

40:31

is interesting. Yeah, maybe you

40:34

did the right thing Yeah, I just

40:36

feel like you know everything happens for a reason You

40:38

know if it doesn't work out then it just it's not

40:40

the right time you can still say you were a published

40:42

author by yourself Exactly you

40:44

publish yourself. Yeah ginger with the soul

40:47

Yeah, look at you So

40:50

you have a soul you have a good one You

40:52

know you too. Thank you It is like a

40:55

weird misconception that people have that like gingers You

40:57

not have souls and there's also like parts of

40:59

the world that like really look down upon gingers

41:01

I think it's unfair people are red

41:03

hair get they deserve better Agreed

41:06

you want that you want to be the first redhead on Mars? I? Did

41:09

yep three years ago in a video about yourself? Where

41:13

you staring at me like that? 100%

41:19

yeah, you said you said

41:21

you want to be the first redhead on the red planet Yeah,

41:25

yeah 100% so good accomplishment,

41:27

so that's my that's my next project getting

41:29

a more musk So

41:32

I'm confused by the way you spell your name

41:35

oh, is that a mistake no

41:39

Okay, here's the story my mom's

41:41

gonna kill me. She's still with two E's So

41:45

okay, my real name is

41:47

Peter, but my mom said when I went

41:49

to middle school She's like now people might make fun of

41:51

you. I like big glasses. It

41:53

was super skinny I was actually really short

41:55

at the time, and she's like you might

41:57

get picked on so you should change her name to

41:59

Pete And I'm like mom. I'm not gonna

42:01

change her name to Pete. That's like the creepy uncle

42:03

Pete You know like with pet e that's what

42:06

I think of and but she

42:08

forced me because she really cared about me And so I'm

42:10

like well, then I'm doing it my way and so I

42:12

changed it to PE ET But

42:14

the reason why is because she's like people are gonna call you

42:17

Peter the penis In

42:22

my life I'm like why would you

42:24

even say that and I would you name me Peter

42:31

Like if kids are gonna call you anything you kind

42:33

of looks like a penis so it's gonna go I'm

42:37

like, I thank you for caring.

42:39

But like what is this? Yeah,

42:43

your mom's a real star the show I know Superstar

42:47

I know She's

42:50

a mess in the best way. I also

42:53

had no idea that your siblings are adopted

42:55

So like your parents are beautiful hearts like

42:57

really like because the other thing to you

42:59

that people do not talk about enough is

43:01

that like So

43:03

many little people are left without

43:06

parents. Like yeah, it is like

43:08

there's a high rate of These

43:12

people who are just left in orphanages

43:15

all over the world, right? It's really

43:17

sad and It

43:19

really breaks your heart when you think about

43:21

it Yeah, and also like I mean there's

43:24

so much misconception about it So

43:26

and and that's what's so sad because

43:28

all these doctors, you know, especially like

43:31

in the like 80s 90s like they had no

43:33

idea Really any of any

43:36

facts about it because I mean my mom's

43:38

type for example of my dad's type of

43:40

dwarfism I'm the first

43:42

ever coming from his type

43:44

and her type in the history books. That's crazy

43:48

So that's why they were like don't have a child. No,

43:50

I'm also like I was gonna do I'm gonna do it

43:52

and anyway, and

43:54

that they like followed me for a couple years because

43:56

they weren't sure like which what was gonna

43:58

happen Wow so I

44:00

mean I just learned that like Recently

44:03

and I was like so

44:06

are you the only kid that your parents

44:08

had actually or any all your siblings are

44:10

adopted? Yeah,

44:13

wow, that's that's pretty wild. Yeah,

44:16

it is wild because everyone thinks the

44:18

opposite, you know And

44:21

like my brother and sister doesn't don't

44:23

like we kind of have this pact that we don't

44:25

talk about it You know, but this is brought up.

44:27

It's fine And

44:31

it's just so interesting because if everyone

44:33

knew then it would just be so wild But

44:35

like, you know that I don't surprise you

44:37

even learn that information You

44:40

really did a deep dive I'm

44:42

scared No

44:45

need to freak it. It's okay. What is

44:47

the signs behind that? Have you looked into it like

44:49

why you you came out like a normal normal height?

44:52

Um, it's just for a Yeah, I

44:55

got the first average. Okay, so like

44:57

dwarfism is a trying to get drink.

44:59

I'm like, please just Just

45:02

the daylight I know it's like it's been a

45:04

rough 72 hours man So

45:11

dwarfism is a dominant gene and

45:13

I got the recessive so

45:15

that's that's the reason why I'm Wow,

45:18

pretty actually pretty simple It's

45:20

like ready to like talk for 10 minutes Prepared

45:24

for myself So

45:28

if you were to have a child is there a higher

45:30

chance I did have it would be a dwarf because you

45:32

have no I have the same chance as you really

45:35

yeah, cuz I didn't get the gene if I would have gotten the gene I

45:37

would have been one That's

45:39

so fascinating. Yeah, it's really crazy

45:41

your stories wild and

45:43

also like your fuel and motivation as to why you

45:45

do things is very much linked to like That

45:48

where you come from and who

45:50

and like who you are like your

45:52

nurturer, right? It's pretty it's really special

45:55

I think it actually will push

45:57

you to make some really genuine stuff. I'm

45:59

excited to watch you make music. I haven't

46:02

been honest. I haven't listened to your

46:04

old stuff. Don't yeah. Don't worry. I'm

46:06

fine. I mean to listen to your

46:08

gravity or euphoria, smell you number four

46:10

I a what

46:13

the fuck. So

46:15

cool. Yeah. Didn't

46:18

ever listen to young wild free. Oh my God.

46:20

Didn't listen to five West. But you know what

46:22

I listened to Pete? Who are you smart to

46:25

think about? Let's

46:27

go. Also, I'm surprised to

46:29

hear like you have a stylist

46:31

who is actually in the boy group with you.

46:34

He was. Don't tell me he styled you today.

46:37

No, I thought myself. I can tell

46:39

you have a whole thing. So

46:42

fashion or no, I don't

46:44

really care. Survival. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I respect

46:46

that. I like that. Me too. Like just too

46:48

much. Yeah. There's too much life going on.

46:51

Really? Like laundry is

46:53

hard enough. You know, for

46:56

real. You gotta be honest with me

46:59

though. You have to be making some money.

47:01

Do you need a mini lady? Like I'll send her

47:03

to your house. Well, you can't do longer. I'll be

47:06

out. No, I'm making money. Like it's

47:08

good, but I just

47:10

have to like, you know, organize my

47:12

life. It's hard. Yeah. Cause it's like, do

47:14

I want to wake up and do laundry or

47:16

do I want to make a video? No, you shouldn't

47:18

create. No, but you can have a clean lady. You

47:20

can help actually like, you know, you pay somebody

47:22

really well and to help you like manage your

47:24

house and manage your clothes and you cannot think about

47:27

it and then also help somebody else out in the

47:29

process and it's a whole thing. You know, it's

47:32

true. You don't need to be focused on your laundry.

47:35

That's true. Or the holes in your sock. But

47:37

then it's like, Oh no, I have to like

47:39

find the person and then how do I trust

47:41

them? And then forget it. Okay. So you're

47:43

already giving up. That's

47:45

okay. My ADHD, you know, flock.

47:48

Yeah. All right. Too much work,

47:50

but like it will actually help though. If

47:52

I just did it, I mean the upside is you're

47:54

saving money. That's

47:56

true. Like you could have an assistant. You definitely probably don't have

47:58

one of those. I do. Yeah. do so

48:01

with like like I'll find

48:03

the right to help a lot but how

48:05

do you trust them I

48:10

don't know hmm but they're usually

48:12

like close friends because I've tried

48:14

to just you know hire people through like YouTube

48:17

refers me or you know like somebody

48:20

I know and then it really

48:22

is just the people who really understand how my brain

48:24

works and like me for it is

48:27

usually the best for me so

48:29

I've like learned that too have you felt that yeah

48:32

I don't know Dan and I are

48:34

really obviously we weren't the other for like

48:36

11 years we couldn't be any more opposite

48:38

really have nothing in common but really we

48:40

also don't work a lot together yeah oh

48:43

only when we're in the room doing this yeah he's all

48:45

this thing over there I do my thing over here we

48:47

come here do this and then it's

48:49

better that go a separate ways we guys friends

48:52

first no we met through this career

48:54

oh wow he's I've been doing

48:56

this show for 17 years I'm not 12 yeah you're 11

48:58

12 oh my

49:02

gosh oh I didn't realize it was that long that's

49:05

amazing no it's crazy okay amazing one way

49:07

to describe it well yeah you're supposed to

49:09

sustain for this long I mean that's insane

49:12

yeah not common right yeah what six episodes

49:14

and people called quits so

49:16

all right we're doing well and

49:19

to be fair though most radio shows go this long

49:21

and we started as a radio show I started

49:23

like an online radio show and then we became

49:25

a real radio show and then

49:27

now you're framed on music so I don't know

49:30

I feel like we can be doing this forever

49:32

like yeah I wouldn't wait like will

49:35

it take different shape would evolve over the years yeah

49:37

but I think it's course gonna be the exact same

49:39

thing like what we're doing here we'll never go out

49:41

of style right I do believe that

49:43

like there's very few things that are timeless in

49:45

culture and I've

49:47

been sitting at this table in some way shape

49:50

or form for the last 17 years like paying

49:52

deep attention to it and it

49:54

is like things ebb and

49:57

flow things come and go but a

49:59

couple things have these ability to just be

50:02

redressed and live forever.

50:05

This I think is one of them. Yeah. And

50:07

I also think like it's what you told me earlier

50:09

of like it's just at the core, you know, this

50:11

is like you, this is your,

50:14

your, your thing, you know,

50:16

it's what inspires you,

50:18

you know, very much what I was meant to

50:21

do. Yeah. Do you feel like

50:23

TikTok was just like a means to getting

50:26

you to a place where you get to do what

50:28

you meant to do or do you feel like you

50:30

were meant to be telling your story and your

50:32

family story and the story of the

50:34

Cecil Hotel via TikTok? I'm

50:37

here for TikTok. I mean, but

50:39

I do think about this in

50:42

particular with you, it's like so many people got

50:44

a chance to hear your story and your family

50:46

story and feel understood and seen. And a lot

50:49

of people who have differences that

50:51

are varying differences, like a bunch

50:53

of, they don't just need

50:55

to be little people to be able to resonate and

50:57

understand and feel seen and understood by the stuff you

51:00

make, you know, right? It is

51:02

important. Yeah. And

51:05

I think that like, that's what's so cool about TikTok and

51:07

you know, these social media apps right now is like people

51:09

are able to discover things and not feel so alone. And

51:12

so it's been really cool to, I guess, just witness

51:14

that and be part of that. And your

51:16

comment section seems pretty positive. Like

51:18

there's not, not, not comfortable.

51:20

Yeah. Because my brothers is like

51:22

the worst. Why

51:25

do you think that is? Like, why do you think you got the positivity and you got

51:27

the negativity? Um, I don't know. He's

51:30

cringy. Yeah. Um,

51:33

I don't know. But actually,

51:35

no, I really think that's it though. Yeah. For

51:38

real. Do you tell him? Yeah, but he

51:40

doesn't get it. He's like a dad, you

51:43

know, and he's like, um, like he's, he's not very

51:45

like aware. You know, he deals with

51:47

fourth graders. Yeah. Like,

51:49

yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

51:52

And um, I don't know.

51:54

He's just, he's

51:57

always been cringed to me because he's older than

51:59

me. So yeah, he's your brother. Yeah, exactly

52:03

But yeah, I don't know why because like what really

52:05

sucks is people like Attack

52:07

my nieces and it really

52:09

pisses me off. No, that's not right. I'm like

52:11

saying that Oh, she looks like Pennywise and Like

52:14

just the worst comments like death to them

52:17

And I'm like, I'm gonna find all your

52:19

guys addresses and do something because like, you

52:21

know, that's my nieces I'm fucked up like

52:23

messing my brother Don't mess my nieces I

52:27

don't like that. Yeah, it's crazy. What do you think

52:29

about that subjecting? I mean

52:32

your family to that The

52:34

internet there is something about family vloggers and

52:36

that whole conversation like yeah, and it's like

52:39

Happened like right now, especially people are talking about a

52:41

lot I

52:43

don't know except I've been thinking about that too lately. I just

52:46

don't know I think I

52:48

know my niece loves to do the videos But

52:50

I just don't want them to get made fun of

52:53

You know when they get older have it hinder

52:56

anything negatively because I Mean

53:00

we also aren't like at a

53:02

day and age yet where we've seen the

53:04

effects of of that yet I don't think

53:06

I have no idea. Yeah, like what if

53:09

they're totally go psycho, you know when they're

53:11

18 or something like I don't know I

53:15

Just want them to be happy and like

53:18

have a good time in life the Internet's

53:20

really cruel The

53:22

world's cruel the scariest part about having a kid

53:25

is the world Yeah, it's not

53:27

even my inability to like take care of a child

53:29

and a love a child and raise a child It's

53:31

everybody and everything else Too

53:33

much man. Yeah, it's a scary place

53:36

Yeah, and also like yeah, I

53:39

wouldn't want to bring them into that like mm-hmm

53:42

You like it's just not the right time.

53:44

It's hard. Yeah, it's really hard

53:47

party like a weirdo by the way Yeah,

53:49

totally different subject waiting for you below

53:52

You can listen to pizza music. It's waiting for

53:54

you on Amazon music. Heck. Yeah, what are you

53:56

thinking? Well, I know you kind

53:58

of said like people shouldn't even look at it like this But like is

54:00

dwarf and little person the correct terminology? Yes,

54:03

okay, so Midget

54:05

is the bad one. Okay, and Like

54:08

dwarfism is like the clinical, you know

54:11

thing and then little people I

54:13

mean it sounds bad like you're a little person But

54:15

exactly how I felt like I know you've been referring

54:17

to that but to me It's like do they want

54:19

to be referred to as that because that's the community

54:21

community as a whole It's like little people of America.

54:23

And so I think you know, we

54:25

just view it a little bit differently like an organization

54:27

But yeah, I totally hear what

54:29

you're saying But

54:32

at the end of the day, I just want to be I think

54:34

called by their name, you know, exactly Which

54:36

is kind of you know, the end message

54:38

there. It's like Yeah,

54:40

they're medical term but Like

54:43

they're people. Yeah Same

54:45

as everyone else. Yeah, exactly I'm

54:49

excited for your music man. Yeah me

54:51

too. I'm interested. So you've 20 songs

54:53

So like any P maybe singles you

54:55

want to do that waterfall? Yeah, we're

54:57

in your singles. Yeah It's

55:00

just kind of like testing, you know because something

55:02

might hit like it might be this weird Like

55:04

it might be like a classical piece, you know,

55:06

or it might be that hits and resonates or

55:09

but I don't know I just want to do what

55:11

feels good and part of the weirdo to me just

55:13

feels really good. It feels like

55:16

I just want to Run around

55:18

and you know get weird and

55:20

a part of feeling good though Does that mean you're not

55:22

like locked to a genre so from Sonic's you're just kind

55:25

of down for anything Yeah, I

55:27

mean I've always loved pop. So at the

55:29

end of the day like it's gonna probably

55:31

be pop But I'm

55:34

I don't know. I love experimenting So

55:36

kind of wherever the creativity goes or

55:38

whoever else is in the room Like if it's

55:40

Harvin Felicia, then it's probably gonna be pop, you

55:42

know, who else have you been doing sessions with?

55:46

So I've done Fallon And

55:48

Chris so basically I've just done a bunch

55:51

of random like sessions and Just

55:54

kind of seeing who I really resonate with Because

55:56

this is all very new that we

55:59

actually like rushed this reason release, because I started in

56:01

like November, I want to

56:03

say, and for music, that's

56:05

really quick and great

56:08

for me because, you know, I'm fast. I like to

56:10

be fast. And so I don't

56:13

know. It's I'm just trying to

56:15

get a sense of who I like to

56:17

be in the room with or where

56:19

I feel the most creative. Take

56:22

it slow and find the people you

56:24

are down to be vulnerable with. Yeah, because

56:26

it is such a different vibe. You know, you know,

56:28

I want to hear your story through music. Oh,

56:32

it's been a long one. Yeah, I'm interested. Yeah.

56:36

And like all sort of boy bands. I

56:38

was going to say, is there any similarities between

56:41

creating with a boy band compared to yourself now?

56:43

No, he's a boy band. Like they just tell

56:45

you what to sing like studio next Tuesday or,

56:47

you know, like find a Nashville and they're like,

56:49

okay, you sing this line. Okay, that's your line.

56:51

You sing this, you know, and so

56:53

now I'm like, oh, I have to actually put my like

56:55

my mix into this. I know I actually have to be

56:58

vulnerable and talk about my day and my

57:00

struggles like this weird,

57:02

you know, but

57:05

it's like it's more like liberating at the same time.

57:07

So but I do miss being a puppet a little

57:09

bit because then you don't have to think it's always

57:12

nice to like just get thrown in, you know, but

57:15

then like your success is determined by somebody else. So I

57:17

feel like you can never have that. Yeah, and it didn't

57:19

work for me. No. So

57:22

yeah, as any of your success allows you to appreciate

57:24

the difficulties in your life a little bit more 100%

57:26

100% I think I mean every difficult part of my

57:28

life, I've been able

57:35

to talk about it and it's

57:37

only like motivated more content

57:39

or you know more songs

57:42

or whatnot. And so it's

57:45

also therapeutic, you know, like I was saying earlier and it's just really

57:48

cool to be able to like

57:51

do all those things at once, I

57:53

guess. I

57:56

just saw something. Even when

57:58

you're saying like my music journey. and

58:00

actually all started with X Factor. Yeah,

58:02

you tried to get on. Yeah. But they didn't

58:04

want you. No. No,

58:07

they did not. They said no. Well, I-

58:09

Well, there were many places that would go

58:11

pee in Montezingo. What the fuck? Yeah, exactly.

58:14

Well, I sang Billionaire by Bruno Mars, and

58:16

I changed it to Famous instead of Billionaires,

58:18

so, like, of course they're gonna be like,

58:20

can you please please please please please please?

58:22

So, I wanna be Famous, uh, I get

58:24

it. It's like it doesn't even go with

58:26

the- No, that doesn't fit. Not at all.

58:28

Did you get to the judges' rounds? Yeah.

58:31

Well, probably for- Famously being bad. Like, I

58:33

think- No. I was pretty good,

58:35

though. Who'd you sing in front of? Actually,

58:37

that's a point. I've been watching. Who'd you sing

58:39

in front of? Simon,

58:42

um, Paula, Nicole, and...

58:45

L.A. Reid. Wow. That's like

58:47

an original X Factor crew. Yeah. Yeah.

58:51

It was scary. So, did Wipeout come

58:53

after X Factor? Oh, before. Oh, wow.

58:56

Yeah. Wipeout was- So, they saw you on Wipeout.

58:59

Oh, yeah. This guy has what it

59:01

takes. That's- He's

59:03

gonna be something. Oh, my God.

59:05

Wipeout always looked fun. I'm jealous of you guys to do

59:08

it. Yeah. Was it fun? Yeah.

59:12

Yeah, you got a fuck- Calling contestants are weird,

59:14

by the way. Like, you wouldn't think that they

59:16

were real. They've

59:20

never met anyone who's been on it, though. I

59:22

don't know. Who the fuck wants to throw

59:24

out their back? Ricocheting off of

59:26

a giant red ball. I was throwing up blood, by

59:28

the way. What? Yeah. No way. They

59:30

had to put me in a stretcher until I stopped

59:32

throwing up blood. That's great TV, though. Oh, yeah. It

59:35

was great. But they didn't air it. Of course not.

59:39

Wait, so what part of the course destroyed

59:42

your puncture in your lung? The first one.

59:45

Really? Yeah. Were you healed and kept going?

59:47

Well, yeah. And that was the last contestant. And

59:50

so, they have 24 or whatever. And

59:52

then, like, the ones- like,

59:54

they go straight into the second round. And

59:57

so, the people who are first get to wait like three hours

59:59

and rest. And I was like the second the last one

1:00:01

and so I was throwing up blood and they're like you made

1:00:03

it to the next Round you gotta get up on the next

1:00:05

platform and do this thing. I was like That

1:00:09

my $50,000 though like I'm poor let's go You

1:00:13

came in second place and won zero dollars

1:00:15

Yeah, and you know what the worst part

1:00:17

is what is I was the second fastest

1:00:19

scorer in the entire season I was just

1:00:21

on the episode with the guy who had

1:00:23

the first No

1:00:25

free will you know, I'm like, well, was it meant

1:00:28

to have the money? I

1:00:32

Look out for you though. It's true because

1:00:34

eventually it came I know it happened to me

1:00:36

too I was so weird I was

1:00:38

told no like hundreds of times like I

1:00:41

did so many pilots and like so many

1:00:43

so many views I like a dozen right

1:00:45

and like a Dozen

1:00:47

and then the one thing that was

1:00:50

actually successful was genuinely just me I

1:00:56

Went after anything else it was like

1:00:59

never working like no came to Hollywood

1:01:01

to like be someone else No, the

1:01:03

reality is like you. Yeah are it?

1:01:06

Yeah Yeah, no totally can

1:01:08

relate that but it's not just like yeah you

1:01:10

you run from exactly what would change your life

1:01:13

Which is your family, right? Yes,

1:01:16

that's it's really it is

1:01:18

kind of special at the same time It is and does

1:01:20

it bring you guys closer or does it

1:01:22

I mean my mom asked you Yeah, 100%

1:01:25

and it's really allowed me to like be

1:01:27

there for her, you know And I'm so

1:01:29

glad she moved to LA because she was

1:01:31

in Seattle. Wow, and so I'm like,

1:01:33

thank God. That's It's

1:01:36

amazing. Yeah, and also like yeah, like

1:01:38

your whole family your even your brother having a

1:01:40

career He has to make some money on TikTok

1:01:42

even with the haters. No, he doesn't. Okay. Got

1:01:45

it I see him on my

1:01:47

feet though. It's like how do I make money and

1:01:49

I'm just like well You gotta do

1:01:51

things differently like do brand deals and you know Talk

1:01:53

to these partners and do over here and do this

1:01:55

it is a whole thing that you have to learn,

1:01:57

right? I mean, yeah, I mean it was a learning

1:01:59

curve for me at least like I was like holy

1:02:03

insane But

1:02:05

he just doesn't I think really care

1:02:07

that much like he loves being a teacher and

1:02:09

he loves being a you know A dad so

1:02:11

like can't blame him for it. Yeah, we

1:02:14

need more people again. I'm like, but don't you want

1:02:16

like twenty thousand dollars? Like

1:02:19

please like take a brand deal. Good God

1:02:22

He could yeah He

1:02:25

could mean I don't know you got a whole little

1:02:27

you got a whole family going on there a whole

1:02:29

little fame operation Yeah, the only

1:02:31

problem though is we've gotten so many reality show

1:02:33

offers. I was gonna ask about that really Yeah,

1:02:35

and I mean we will not do it because

1:02:38

no one needs another TLC dwarf I know the

1:02:40

little channel like come on Also, I gotta I

1:02:42

gotta say like I probably know every production company

1:02:44

that reach out to you like they got to

1:02:46

do better Like yes to be more creative. Yeah,

1:02:49

and we told them that pretty much like that

1:02:51

you need to do better Yeah, and

1:02:53

they're like, yeah, we think like Your

1:02:55

mom can go on a date with a tall guy. I'm

1:02:57

just like oh, that's insane People I'm

1:03:00

like so people can walk by and you know,

1:03:02

you get the shock value and all that. I'm

1:03:04

like, okay You would that's again

1:03:06

by the way, like has been done little people

1:03:08

big world. I've seen all these shows before something

1:03:10

else You know, let's actually like be real this

1:03:12

time like for once That's

1:03:15

wild. But um, I'm still

1:03:17

holding out though Like I want to do a show

1:03:19

at one point like do like create a show where

1:03:22

it actually is like a sitcom or You

1:03:26

know TV do that. Yeah

1:03:28

scripted show based on your life. That's funny.

1:03:30

I'd watch it We're just even if you

1:03:32

know people who have dwarfism or yeah, actually

1:03:34

like the main actors Well, they don't really

1:03:36

see that except Peter Dinklage. So yeah,

1:03:39

that's very true, too Because

1:03:42

there's just so much and it doesn't have to be always

1:03:44

a reality show No, no, no, no, no and by the

1:03:46

way, you see you have like more creative freedom with a

1:03:48

scripted program You can do more that's

1:03:51

fun. You can actually be a big progress

1:03:53

make change. That's cool Yeah, and

1:03:55

yeah, that's true because those contracts for that

1:03:58

non scripted are insane. Yeah Oh

1:04:00

my god, and also all these like

1:04:02

producers at the non-scripted places being like I got

1:04:04

this great idea There's this family and this kid

1:04:06

blowing up on six-hour Have you

1:04:09

heard there's already 18 million people subscribed to

1:04:11

him But I'm gonna discover him and put

1:04:13

him on TV because that's exactly what you

1:04:15

fucking need Yeah, you can be a star

1:04:17

make like eight to ten thousand

1:04:20

dollars per reality show episode Just to be

1:04:22

exploited and to have people with cameras around

1:04:24

you Today. Yeah,

1:04:26

thanks Yeah, people are

1:04:29

dumb. Yeah That's

1:04:32

really what you know, you don't make a lot of

1:04:34

money doing that, you know And to be fair your

1:04:36

whole family would get their own salary So they'd all

1:04:38

make between like seven and ten grand Well takes somebody

1:04:41

who's produced shows like this to like tell you this

1:04:43

is how it works and they get exploited like to

1:04:45

no end You have no control over the edit. No

1:04:47

matter how many you can trust us Come

1:04:51

on. Have you do you know about a production company? We

1:04:54

produce a little yeah Get

1:04:57

a grip throw it up Stress

1:05:00

you should Yeah, so

1:05:02

stupid. Yeah, like that's the last like

1:05:04

the show you need. Yeah agreed That's

1:05:06

validated you can't roll the edit and

1:05:08

you get rich and you do your

1:05:10

own thing. Yeah Exactly.

1:05:13

It'd be totally different if you didn't have

1:05:15

I don't know 18 million subscribers on fucking YouTube A

1:05:18

lot of subscribe crazy. I know but

1:05:21

like more than any traditional network will

1:05:23

have on their fucking YouTube channels and

1:05:25

or watching their actual Yeah,

1:05:27

and they were like all our biggest we got their biggest

1:05:29

live count For our show,

1:05:31

but whatever it was at the time. I think it was

1:05:33

my Something my sister

1:05:36

something. Yeah Like

1:05:42

that and they're like, yeah, we got um, like it

1:05:44

was our second highest rating ever and I'm like, I

1:05:46

think it was like What

1:05:49

was it? Like I mean, it wasn't that many people

1:05:52

I'm like there could have been hundreds of thousands not even

1:05:54

in the millions and they would have said that that was

1:05:56

still pretty I don't even think it was in the hundreds

1:05:58

of hundreds of thousands like By viewing, yeah,

1:06:00

I was like, this is it, and

1:06:02

then you want me to stop posting videos. You know, it's

1:06:04

like weird. I don't know. Like you don't

1:06:07

ever do that. Yeah. It's just such a

1:06:09

crazy world, man. Yeah, it has

1:06:11

to be a lot that you're navigating. Because

1:06:13

with online success, your inbox has

1:06:15

to be, at one point, had to have

1:06:17

been flooded, which is people wanted to take advantage in some

1:06:19

way, shape, or form. Yeah, totally.

1:06:22

It's weird, like success has many fathers and failures

1:06:25

in Orphan. Like, nobody really

1:06:27

gave much shit. There's no playbook. Yeah,

1:06:30

you know, and especially in the digital age, like,

1:06:32

you know, Wild Wild West out here, TikTok

1:06:35

and all that shit. But

1:06:37

it is wild. Like, not many people, nobody

1:06:39

really cared about anything that you were doing

1:06:41

pre-Seasle Hotel, pre-making videos

1:06:43

with your mom. I know.

1:06:46

And now the world lights up your inbox. Yeah,

1:06:48

I'm like, I was like, oh

1:06:51

yeah, I was just like talking to YouTube a

1:06:53

couple weeks ago and they were like, so

1:06:55

like a basic interview. So how long have you been

1:06:58

doing YouTube for? And

1:07:00

I'm like, well, since 2007,

1:07:02

no one cared until COVID happened, you

1:07:04

know, like, delete those videos now, pretend

1:07:07

like I just started. Yeah,

1:07:09

that's wild. Yeah,

1:07:11

it's weird, you know, but your path

1:07:13

continues to be written every single day.

1:07:15

Exactly. Excited for more music to come. Come back

1:07:17

on our show. Yeah, absolutely. You're always invited.

1:07:19

Come over to my mom's house, rake your backs.

1:07:22

We'd love to. I would love to experience

1:07:24

that. Yeah, it must be. Do you still kind of

1:07:26

find it fascinating when you go home or are you kind of

1:07:28

just so used to it at this point? I mean, no,

1:07:30

that's home to me. Like it's just if things aren't

1:07:32

low, it's weird. So it's why in my

1:07:34

kitchen at home, everything's low. And I'm like, why do I

1:07:36

do this at your own house? You did. Yeah.

1:07:40

I'm like, oh, I'm like, oh, that's

1:07:43

interesting. Yeah, your whole life

1:07:45

has been shaped off of your

1:07:48

experience, which makes the most sense. Like, of course, everything in

1:07:51

your own house would be low because that's what you're used to. He's

1:07:54

got a memory. He's not going up. He's

1:07:56

going down. Yeah. Yeah, I

1:07:58

didn't think about that. That's so true. going to friends

1:08:00

houses and I'm like where are the plates they're like

1:08:03

like why are you looking

1:08:05

down at like you know the

1:08:08

bleeds you know like finding

1:08:10

like a partner like a

1:08:13

lover I don't know somebody in

1:08:15

life I don't know there's a lot

1:08:18

there I once heard you that you have

1:08:20

commitment issues and whenever a relationship gets to about a

1:08:22

year you break it off how

1:08:25

do you know this because you

1:08:27

said it I

1:08:29

say that it's that a tweet no is in

1:08:31

some video you made it like three or four

1:08:33

years ago oh oh god yeah

1:08:36

definitely a lot of commitment issues I just

1:08:38

learned that I was a avoidant attachment

1:08:40

style and so I'm like oh yikes for the

1:08:43

problem gotta fix that oh we did so therapy

1:08:45

it is interesting

1:08:48

but you'd actually have relationships with people for a year

1:08:50

and then you just dip yeah I

1:08:54

would like track it there was

1:08:56

a lot of some year in a

1:08:58

relationship it's been a minute

1:09:00

yeah but also like that's okay because you

1:09:02

know I feel like I'm in a relationship

1:09:04

with my career right now totally a hundred

1:09:06

percent it's full-time and it does take a

1:09:08

certain level of selfishness to be successful yeah

1:09:11

sad what it's true yeah I

1:09:14

like to say believing in yourself sure

1:09:17

it's okay though yeah like some

1:09:19

like selfish it like self-love isn't selfish

1:09:21

right right and it is giving yourself

1:09:24

love but also like giving yourself love

1:09:26

could allow for a better life for

1:09:28

everybody in your family and a better

1:09:31

you for whatever partner is gonna come your way

1:09:33

when the time is right so exactly it's more

1:09:35

about focusing on you for growth yeah

1:09:38

a hundred percent it's the right place to be

1:09:40

in I agree damn Pete

1:09:43

wants a zingo hey good

1:09:45

yeah listen to Pete's music it's

1:09:47

waiting for you on Amazon music party with the

1:09:49

weirdo party with the weirdo party with the weirdo music

1:09:51

video I

1:09:56

know if I like be down to just like if you go

1:09:58

you want party with this weirdo I'm

1:10:01

just being honest with you. But you said you're

1:10:03

weirdo yourself. I am weird, but I think everyone is their

1:10:05

own type of weird, I guess. That's

1:10:09

true. Yeah. Well, maybe

1:10:11

party with a creep is different. Weirdo

1:10:14

and creep is not the same thing. Yes.

1:10:17

So weirdo, let me specify. It means

1:10:19

just zany, quirky... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:10:21

I am weird. Ball pits and... Yeah,

1:10:24

ball pits. Yeah, not

1:10:26

creepy. Yeah, not like an

1:10:28

Uncle Pete or something. Yeah. P-E-T-E.

1:10:31

Exactly. By the way.

1:10:34

P-E-T-E. Peter the penis. God.

1:10:36

Thanks for being here. I really appreciate you.

1:10:38

You're on the shingle. Oh, not now. Oh,

1:10:41

my God. You're the man.

1:10:44

Oh, man. It's the Zach Seng Show.