RudyWade and The American Zombie Tour
Rudy Wade – Photo by Jack Lue
RudyWade and The American Zombie Tour
RudyWade is a Los Angeles based singer/songwriter who is currently in the midst of releasing one new song a week – and has quite a brilliant collection of music on Spotify. With an Instagram presence of 135K fans and absolutely staggering numbers on Spotify, RudyWade is pursuing his passion for music full time. Highwire Daze caught up with RudyWade at The Whisky on The American Zombie Tour for an interview and Jack Lue photo shoot. Read on…
We are here with RudyWade at the Whisky on the Sunset Strip. Where are you based out of? What is your local music scene like there?
I’m based out of LA right now, but I grew up in New Jersey and the music scene out here is great. Honestly, a lot of like-minded and talented artists are playing out here. So, I’d love to go and support the other artist shows and they always come in search of support to mine. And, so I love it.
How has the American Zombie Tour, been going so far, and what have been some of the highlights?
The American Zombie Tour has been amazing. We played so far in Nashville, Houston, and Austin before coming to LA. And my favorite show is probably the Houston show. My favorite part was probably when I got down off the stage and we had a little mosh-pit going.
What are you looking forward to the most about playing here at The Whisky on the Sunset Strip?
This is actually my second time playing here at The Whisky but honestly, this is one of my favorite venues to play here in LA. The sound here is amazing, and the crowd is also awesome.
Let’s talk about the American Zombie Song. Tell me a little about that and the inspiration behind it and the collaboration which also features Ethan Gander, Demi The Daredevil, and Mitchel Dae.
So that song basically came once we all had all the artists for the tour, we hopped on a call and we kind of figured out who was singing which part, and then we each kind of sent some ideas back and forth. We had a lyric document where we were all able to edit everything. So, we kind of put all of our brains together and made one collaborative product, which is kind of crazy to think about when there’s four people working on the same song and the turnaround time that we had to do was in less than a week as well. So, we kind of scrambled, we got everything together and it came out better than we could have all ever imagined.
Rudy Wade – Photo by Jack Lue
Are you still managing to release a new song a week?
Yeah, I release new music every single week. I’ve released two videos every single day on TikTok. A video every day on Instagram, and a video every day on YouTube shorts.
How do you do it? How are you able to be so creative?
Honestly, right now, music is my full-time thing. So, I have so much time to lock in at the studio. I’m making about five to seven songs every week. So out of those, obviously one’s going to be good. Right? And for content, it just honestly takes me like, an hour or less and I can pump out a whole video. So, at this point, I’ve got it down.
Never Liked You. Tell me about that song, and the inspiration behind it.
Yeah, so that song, I actually wrote it with my friend G. Elz. He’s a really talented writer. He writes for some artists like, Future, Trippie Redd, Chris Brown, and I got in the studio with him and three of my other producer friends Hysiondawn, Miless, and Max Delgado. And there was five of us in the room and we all just kind of brainstormed together and we decided we wanted to write a song about somebody that you love, but you don’t like. And it’s like, kind of a bit of a toxic relationship, but I feel like a lot of people can relate to going through that sort of thing.
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is. Tell me about that one.
Yes, so that song was actually a feature I did for my friend Dampszn, I knew him for a couple of years and he was asking me to get on one of his songs and I was like, dude, honestly, I think the best bet would be if you come out to LA and then we’ll link up at the studio and I’ll give you a verse. So he flew out to LA. He booked a studio session. I pulled up and then I sang a verse on it and then we did a bunch of content too.
Give me a little background on your biggest song Trapped In A Dream?
Honestly that song was before I even kind of knew what I was doing. I kind of just stumbled across the instrumental on YouTube and it was called, The Wake Up. And that title of instrumental was kind of just got me thinking like, “What if life as we know it, is all just kind of a dream and what if none of this is real?” So I kind of was talking about how, everything could be an illusion and just like, you never really know and the instrumental kind of spoke to me and allowed me to paint a visual canvas over it.
That song has 23 million streams on Spotify. What does that number even mean to you?
I mean, that song alone really is the reason why I can do music full-time. It’s the song that really brought me from doing music as a hobby to doing it as my job. It’s something that I look at and I admire and think that I’m really proud of myself for getting this far. And there’s still a lot of work left to do. We’ve just barely started in this music industry. And there’s still so much left to achieve and accomplish.
Rudy Wade – Photo by Jack Lue
If the music of RudyWade, was a donut? What kind would it be and why?
Chocolate/chocolate for sure. I’m addicted to chocolate. It’s probably my guilty pleasure. It’s just the most delicious thing on the planet.
What’s up next for you?
Right now, I would say I’m planning my 2025 album. So, it would be my second studio album. And I really think I can outdo my first album. I want to make an album that’s just even better than the last one. So, after this tour is over, I’m just going to be locked in the studio, just kind of creating the best body of work that I can. Because I really have so many singles. So, I want to give the fans a real body of work.
What advice would you give a young artist who is looking at you and they’re going, “25 million streams. How do I do that?” What advice would you give them?
The main advice that I would give is probably, “Get in front of the camera and start posting content online every day. Because you’re going to be bad at first when you start getting in front of the camera, you’re not going to know what to say. But the more you do it, the more comfortable you get, the easier it’s going to be, to just crank out videos, and the more videos you’re posting, the more people that are coming and finding and discovering your music. So you just can’t give up and you got to keep posting. Never look at the amount of views you’re getting, or whatever. Because that really doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, what just matters is that you’re getting out there, you’re getting in front of the camera and telling people about your art.”
And do you have new messages for your fans who are reading this right now?
Thank you guys so much for tuning in. It’s been a pleasure talking to you guys and letting you guys see what’s been going on in my life.
RudyWade will be appearing at Harvard & Stone in Hollywood on December 6th!!!
Interview by Ken Morton – Photos by Jack Lue
