Episode 259
#259 - Interview with music writer Allen Halas
Allen Halas is the kind of creator who doesn’t wait for permission. As the founder of Breaking and Entering Milwaukee and host of Hustling Sideways. He’s been documenting the local music scene while building a platform. That lifts new artists out of the noise. We talk about the Midwest’s overlooked creative heartbeat. From Milwaukee’s DIY grind to the quiet evolution happening in hip hop, punk, and indie rock.
This conversation hits everything from the collapse of industrial America. To AI’s role in the next era of art. Allen breaks down how to build something real when algorithms reward the fake. Why failure, community, and imperfection matter more than chasing trends. It’s a love letter to the working-class artist, and the Midwest creative. Anyone trying to make something that lasts longer than a click.
Where to Find Allen Halas?
🌐 Website: breakingandentering.net
📚 Work: 🎧 Breaking and Entering Milwaukee / Hustling Sideways
https://linktr.ee/HustlingSideways
📲 Social: @AllenHalas
Transcript
Interview with Allen Hallas
Dave: [:Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: is the universe trying to play a little game with me right now?
Like not hardball, you know, like not like a good game of football right now, but like a real meanest it is game because that's how it does.
, you know, Giannis and Dame [:Dave: Oh, that's amazing.
Allen Halas: but you know, what it is, so I'll
Dave: No, and you know what?
Allen Halas: you know?
Dave: No, and you know what? Honestly, like it's credit. It's where credit is due and where credit is deserved because like, I, I can honestly, like, I haven't met you before, but I can honestly tell like, you're not a person that just sits around on, you know, on a goddamn couch and watches freaking Netflix all day.
Like you are, you're a hard worker. You've put a lot of energy and a lot of work into this,
Allen Halas: Yeah.
Dave: it's not something that like happened yesterday and that, that alone is like, obviously you can't expect just because you've done all of this hard work and you've put yourself out there and try to be there in the community and do as much outreach as you possibly can, that like you are gonna get rewarded.
ing a little bit of a reward [:Allen Halas: Yeah, totally. And like my whole thing is like, no one's gonna do it for you. You know what I mean? Like, it has totally been a lot of what I do is based on, you know, just get there, do something, you know, make sure something happens. Um, there was one time where like something with the brewers was coming up and I was like, ah, I don't know if I might go to this thing.
And then I like stopped and I was like. Are you too good for the professional sports team in town right now? Like, are you too good for the, the Milwaukee brewers to invite you to something and not go, like, you
Dave: Yeah.
Allen Halas: I, I had to stop myself and be like, okay, like you, if you want this, like go work for it, you know?
Dave: Yeah,
Allen Halas: yeah.
ry we have really forgotten, [:You know, people that are settling over there and then they're raising kids and they're like. Oh, you got seven kids?
Allen Halas: Yeah. They
Dave: You got eight kids.
Allen Halas: Yeah.
Dave: Yeah. Let's make a baseball team. Let's do it.
Allen Halas: yeah.
Dave: And it's been forgotten, which I, it hurts a little that it's like, it's kind of pushed in the back of the drawer. A little too much to be honest.
Allen Halas: Right. Well, I think now, like the great equalizer is definitely the internet in the sense
Dave: Oh yes.
Allen Halas: you know. [:And you can have a global reach without having to leave the comfort of home now, which is such a, a game changer. And definitely something that like helps cities like Milwaukee, you know, kind of get remembered more than anything. I don't wanna say like put on the map, but like remembered is probably the better way to put it,
ate. You just have one place [:Like no offense, like it sucks. You have no absolute like options or anything of any kind of our, even with internet and everything that's available, you're kind of forced to. But Wisconsin is the complete opposite. It's like you have all these small little rural towns, you know, you've got Kenosha, you've got Milwaukee, and you know, you kind of, you told me this too, like even being able to travel back and forth and kind of being able to collaborate with people in another town, like.
Those are things that are really important because it then allows you to do a little bit more outreach in your own home state and in your own place. I.
Allen Halas: Yeah, and there was a, uh, there's a guy that's from Milwaukee, his name Xavier Ruffin, and he'll never remember this, but he put this on Facebook years ago and he was like, the secret is, and he like lives out in LA and has moved to Atlanta and like done a lot of like big production work for, uh, like TV and film, but his, he put on Facebook one time.
The secret [:Dave: Yeah, because honestly, that we, we tend to forget that as artists, we in a sense are a community
Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: shape of the word that you wanna look at it. And what that means is that either that can mean home base or like you said, it can be, it could be a place like Los Angeles where you can connect with other people that are in a completely different environment than you.
e like LA is survival of the [:Allen Halas: Yeah.
Dave: know, you, you have to, I'm like, I, I, it's a fact in LA as a musician, as an artist, as a creator, you have to slaughter people, metaphorically speaking in order to survive.
Allen Halas: Yeah.
Dave: means.
Allen Halas: probably the world's most talented baristas and bartenders, you know, that's no slight to, to baristas and bartenders, but like,
Dave: Oh my God, it's so accurate.
Allen Halas: to make it, you know?
Dave: It's so accurate. No, and it's true. And then when you are able to come back, like you said, you know, and that kind of is good inspiration, you know, you're able to come back to home base and realize like, you're not competing against 8 million people in a tiny little area. You know, you're, you're competing with a very little, and it's not even competing in the sense because you're in an area where it's so spread out and it's so small where instead of competing, you can collaborate more.
to explore that environment [:Allen Halas: Yeah. And I think in a larger city like Los Angeles, uh, or New York, there's so much competition that it can be deflating. Um, here it is still definitely there's some, some competition, but everybody knows everybody in Milwaukee kind of thing. If you're involved in the music scene for long enough, like you eventually get to know everyone or kind of brush path with people, or at least learn names of people along the way.
Right. Um, I do think it's still competitive that there's still like that element of like steel, sharpened steel and people try to, you know, see how they can be the best in their city. Um, but it doesn't feel unattainable. Like if you're, you know, in LA or New York and you're not making it like that can be crushing to not be able to get out of even your own city.
ike hundreds of thousands of [:Dave: Yeah.
Allen Halas: you know?
Dave: And also another thing to touch on, which I think is important, is the fact that, right, when you deal with places like la, Chicago, Atlanta, New York, if you are from there, like for example from me, I'm from New York. If you're from New York, you have a much easier time because you, you talk the talk,
Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: understand the brutal nature, and you know how to be able to survive and adapt yourself.
I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with, you know, somebody trying to explore and figure out those areas. By all means, you should go right ahead. But being able to have that advantage where you are able to understand your own environment, like for example, for your own self, that does give you a very strong advantage because it allows you to pave yourself a really clean route.
. In your case, I, I kind of [:I've been in this industry for a while. You, you're then able to clear yourself an actual path. To really give yourself an act, an actual opportunity. I'm not saying that you should limit yourself, but that is something to take into mind, especially when you're living in different places. That's not your home base.
Allen Halas: Yeah. And when you only have, I mean like a limited number of resources, sometimes that can actually kind of work in your advantage because you have these places that you can try and fail. Um, but isn't like trying and failing on a grand scheme, right? Like
Dave: No,
Allen Halas: you know, you think of like, okay, bad example here, but like standup comedy of if you fail at the Laugh factory in la like everybody has seen and heard that you failed at that place. If you fail at Bremen Cafe in Milwaukee, you know, like you got another swing at that because also there's probably another chance that you're gonna be back on that stage. And
Dave: that's so true.
Allen Halas: that limited [:Like they only see
Dave: Yeah. Yeah. 100%. And you know what, you bring up a great point about standup comedy. 'cause when I was in New York a few weeks ago and I was in Brooklyn, I was seeing, um, two friends of mine that I'm really close with. And we went to a comedy show on Thursday night. And what's really interesting is like to your point where if you're in Brooklyn and you know, you're a starting up comedian and you're trying to figure yourself out or whatever, and you kind of, you make too many political jokes for your own good and you say a few things you shouldn't be saying, it's fine.
You know, you're trying out your material. It's the same thing, for example, where you have musicians, right? They go to live venues, I'm sure they have this in Wisconsin, you know, and they try out new material, they try out new songs. It doesn't land so well. People are kind of like, eh,
Allen Halas: Yeah.
Dave: learn, you know, you're like, okay, this is one music event.
We'll have another one. [:Like, I think that's the most stupidest thing that you can do to yourself if you don't fail. How the hell are you supposed to be successful?
Allen Halas: Yeah. Oh, totally. And for everything that I've done, there's definitely been 10 things that have not worked out. Right. So
Dave: Yeah.
Allen Halas: definitely had a lot of nos along the way. And whether that's, you know, access to events or advertisers or whatever, like you just, I think, become resilient and you learn to roll with it and say, okay, well what can I do? And eventually after a while, like you get some inertia from that and you find the little win becomes a slightly larger win, becomes a slightly larger win. And I do think a lot of artists don't want to take that path, but when you do, it can be beneficial for sure.
Dave: It [:If you wanna rock and roll, I just. I try to have this level of reality and I, and I know that you know this as well, we are, this is probably one of the hardest things that you will do in your life
Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: if you really are passionate about the arts, you know, you're a creative person, like by all means, but also keep in mind that you are going to work you fucking ass off.
ing or if you're doing music [:You know, it's like you do this, the, you know, especially in this country, it's like, all right, enjoy the shit storm. 'cause it's gonna be a lot of fun.
Allen Halas: yeah, yeah. And totally. I think that, um, so I, I grew up in the era of like warp tour and pop punk and all of these things, and so. It was an era of if you didn't work hard, you didn't get noticed. Right? Like a
Dave: Right.
Allen Halas: and bands that I knew, I had a friend in a band that was on MySpace at the time that told me every time that they were playing a city, and they were in high school at the time, so this isn't as weird as it sounds, but every time that they would play in a certain town or a city, they would find the local high school.
verybody in that high school [:Right? Like in order to experience the show and be around it. But I also wanted to be somebody that was working behind the scenes and putting in the work. 'cause it felt so much more rewarding to like, see the show happen because you helped to make that happen, you know?[00:16:00]
Dave: Yeah. And, and again, again though, right? It, it ties into artist collaboration. It's working together as a team instead of fighting each other.
Allen Halas: mm-hmm. For sure. And yeah. And now in Milwaukee, like what we have there, it used to not like be like this at all. And it used to be like this pocket of people didn't really mess with this pocket of people over here on the other side of town or whatever. And now I think thanks to things like what I've built with breaking and entering, like there's a central resource that people can at least learn about each other.
They can
Dave: Yeah,
Allen Halas: other's music, they can discover each other that way. Um, there are definitely many more outlets that do that now, which wasn't always the case. But when we started it was kind of also with that idea of like bringing people together and saying, Hey, there's amazing talent here in your own city.
Like, come check out these people. So, and, and putting a light on those sorts of things.
e talked about this the last [:You know, you had companies like nash, you had companies like, um, A MC, American Motor Corporation. And the hilarious part is if you ask people that are maybe, you know, like 29, 30, they have no idea what you're talking about. I mean, unless if you're like from, you know, if you're from Wisconsin, obviously hear your grandparents, you know, your grandparents had like, you know, one of those cars probably still stuck in a barn somewhere
Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: and that has gone completely away.
And what does this have to do with the artist industry? It has a lot to do with the artist industry because when you build communities where you have people that are reliant around, you know, factories in order to work, and then you have the big three that comes along
Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: and [:You basically have three, three choke. They basically three choke holds, which is the big three America. And they don't really do any manufacturing in this country anymore. They do everything in Canada and Mexico.
Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: You know it, what it does is it dilutes the communities and what happens is a lot of the times people start isolating.
It's where you have one town that doesn't wanna deal with another person. It's, it's like, well, we're struggling. What the hell you want from us? We gotta take care of ourselves. Like we don't. We have thousands of people that have no jobs, and by the way, for people that are growing up and they have their parents that have this misery and this crap going on in their head, and then you have kids that are growing up in these homes that does p something to people.
an environment over a period [:Allen Halas: Yeah. And uh, Milwaukee definitely went through that for us. I mean, when I was a kid growing up, it was probably the fallout of a lot of that, you
Dave: yeah.
Allen Halas: like in the nineties, Milwaukee had a lot of, you know, had a lot of. Change that needed to happen right. When I was growing up, and now I, especially in this last 10, 15 years in Milwaukee, there has been so much of an effort to rebuild what the identity of the city is.
that going on, like the tech [:And, uh, and, and music and entertainment is a big component of that.
Dave: It is. And you know what, like even touching on sports, you know, 'cause we, we said this earlier and how, especially when you have people that are moving to different places when there was basically there was nothing there. And then eventually building communities where they, you know, eventually have sports teams starting to be built.
use and it's just Green Bay. [:And I can kind of understand that in a sense. It's like you grow up, obviously, like in the nineties, trying to get out of that industrial.
Allen Halas: Yeah.
Dave: you try to give your kids some type of entertainment, some creativity, and yeah, sports
Allen Halas: Yep, absolutely.
Dave: that's, that's kind of how it grows around.
Allen Halas: that is Wisconsin. You know, in a nutshell is Sunday afternoon if the Packers are playing, like the city shuts down, know, you can get anywhere in the city in probably 15 minutes. Normally, you could probably get there in 10 on a Packer's game day if it's during the game. Um, because people are just.
Dave: Oh god.
ou know, three hours. Right. [:Um, especially, you know, green Bay is the smallest market. It's the only market that's outside of a, a major US city in the whole NFL. Um, so
Dave: It is. Yeah.
Allen Halas: Milwaukee's about two hours south of that, but we still claim that as our team, obviously very much so the whole state does. Um, and so yeah, having that feeling of like, this is us, this is our thing, has always been there for sure.
Dave: Yeah. It's not just people, it's not just cheese. Okay. Wisconsin's known for a lot more stuff than just cheese it, and it's really, you know what's really funny is because. When we look at this country, in many ways, we're looking at 50 sovereign nations, right? Because, you know, you take somebody, I love this, like you take somebody from like Wisconsin and then you put them against somebody from North Carolina.
I'm not [:Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: they're both Americans.
They both were raised in the same country, but one's raised in North Carolina and the other person's raised in Wisconsin.
Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: that's like apples and oranges right there. And I'm sure you've, you've experienced that, especially with dealing with other artists.
Allen Halas: Well, to your point too about Wisconsin is more than just cheese. A a big thing is
Dave: It is rather just cheese.
Allen Halas: that Milwaukee is more than just, you know, we're not rural over here. We're a city. We have
Dave: No.
now, a small farm town, like [:Dave: Oh my God. It's hilarious. No, it's, it's so funny because there's like, there's this stereotype of Midwesterners, like this hardcore stereotype of like the way that they talk, you know? It's like, oh, miss Westerners, they're like, oh yeah. You know, like they al always have that accent. I'm like, bro, like Midwesterners sound more American than some Americans.
Sound like I'm gonna be straight up and honest.
Allen Halas: Well,
Dave: It's true.
Allen Halas: do [:Like, I've very much been in that more times than I can, uh, more times than I can imagine.
Dave: Oh my God.
Allen Halas: like the meme of saying, oh, let me sneak past you right there, that's real. And you just say it and you don't even realize you're saying it. Like, so some of those, some of those things are very much true, but, uh, if it's a, you know, if it's a bad trait to be too polite, then that's fine.
roto punk or even being able [:It's just so, I, I don't know. I personally feel it's a little bit disrespectful. Then you're like kind of putting people such as yourself, like in this box or like, okay, so because you're in this environment, you can only make this and this kind of music. I'm like, no, that's not, no, that's not real at all.
At.
ndie rock. Um, those two, as [:Um, we have several very talented ones. But yeah, just that dynamic shift is entirely, uh, something that's pretty unique.
Dave: It is. And you know, also by the way, that that is a really true thing to touch on as well, is the fact that there's this idea that's been floating around. And hon, honestly, I think a lot of it has to be blamed to the internet where hip hop r and b and soul get tied into rap. It's like they all become rap and it's like forgetting this idea of like, okay, hip hop r and b and Soul can be rap.
Allen Halas: Right?
, they don't always tie into [:Allen Halas: Yeah, well now, I mean, it's even evolved beyond that too. And
Dave: Oh yeah.
Allen Halas: that I think about with, you know, for as much as streaming has its disadvantages for artists, I think there's also that ability to draw influence from every type of music along the way as well. So now, like I see a lot of kids in Milwaukee that are making the real interesting stuff right now is like a, a mixture of like hyper pop and where it's like kind of pop music.
ere, the kids that were told [:So the fact that
Dave: No.
Allen Halas: on or like there's, you know, artists like, uh, lake and Gecko that are currently Ma and Eli Stones that are currently making stuff that sounds like traditional like. Like pop punk stuff, but also they, they came out of hip hop, all of them. So like to have that kind of merging of genres is pretty wild to see.
ly like a byproduct of being [:Dave: Yeah.
Allen Halas: store and buy something or having to go to a library and rent something. You can click a button and you can get that influence now and that creates something entirely different.
Dave: It does. And a, again, I, I think this is something that gets lost in the, the weeds. A lot of the times we're heavily relying on software and technology, you know, like synchronizers and mixers and auto tune. It doesn't make you less talented than an artist. Like I think it's fucking ridiculous that we have this Idiocracy in our heads.
It's like, oh, well if you can't, you know, sing properly and if you can't play an instrument, you can't make music. I'm like, do you know, you know this 'cause you work with tons of IND artists, like how many of them heavily rely on software? And I'm like, you know what, you as a schmuck, you try to do the same crap that they try to do.
Good luck.
Allen Halas: Yeah, there's [:Dave: There.
Allen Halas: craft this, um, or, you know, whatever it might be.
atter on the internet lately.[:Dave: Oh, it has, and I, I, I've touched on it. I, I like to use this analogy, which is when Brian Eno came to the scene in the early seventies and he started playing around with computers and making synthesizers, and he is, he's one of the, the founding forefathers of love, digital music that we know of today. They thought that he was a cheater, a liar, you know, not a real artist.
He was just some it guy that thought that he could, but reality is he was a freaking genius. He figured out something in a time where things were way more analog than they are today, that you had. A computer that was the size of a freaking like high school, you know, basketball like, um,
Allen Halas: Right.
Dave: court, right? And he was able to figure that out.
try to go onto Beethoven AI [:So you have, I don't think Logic, logic, uh, Logitech Pro does this, but you have other, um, audio softwares that you can use, that you can add in these plugins that can, for example, I've seen one of them, which I think is really, really cool. You can take a loop. So you can take, for example, like a beat and you can get AI.
Put it onto the beat and then you could see, for example, of either slowing it down, changing the tempo, changing for example, the chord. So the chord progressions you could literally have where AI changes the chord progression for you from start to finish. So the beat can either get either a minor, then go down to, now you could do all the stuff yourself.
But [:Do that in two seconds. Like, okay, this doesn't work. Alright, lemme, lemme try something else.
Allen Halas: Yeah,
Dave: I think.
Allen Halas: and
Dave: I think this amazing.
drums, even though I do know [:Dave: I play, I play guitar also. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Allen Halas: uh, but the same thing could be said for like, like, I'm a very poor DJ and you know, I can, I can still mix songs and I can still, I, you know, I'll use the beat match or whatever, like on the, the turntable to, 'cause I'm an amateur for sure. And to like, be able to sync things up. I'll, I'll do that. it, as, you know, you still have to use that brain power of like, I have to match these songs up. I have to find out what would go good here. You know what I mean? What would fit in as the next song? So like, I feel like that line always of like, where does the human input end and where does the, the machine takeover.
I don't think that we should [:Dave: I, I, I don't like to, to throw out, you know, like famous bait, but I'll be honest, I, I, I think one of the biggest influencers that has kind of caused a lot of the problems in ai, especially within media, I, I don't think it's his fault, I just think he likes to have conversa, is Joe Rogan.
Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: He, he talks sometimes, no offense with some people personally, I feel they're lunatics.
Allen Halas: Yeah.
ng out of their ass. And you [:Like, I have a little bit of a caveat. You also do as well, where you know you're able to go on pod match, reach somebody. We could do a pre-call, talk out a little bit and figure. So what happens is then you get these people on and like AI is gonna take over the world. People are gonna turn into the Borg from Star Trek.
I'm like, okay. First off, like I said earlier, people were talking about Brian Eno like this 40 years ago and saying that he was a, they were talking about David Bo, you can go online right now and see articles from Variety. They're talking about how crazy David Bowie was. This psycho alien standing up on the stage, looked like a freaking skeleton surviving on milk and cocaine and peppers throughout the seventies.
Allen Halas: Yeah.
robably the next few hundred [:Allen Halas: Right.
Dave: let's be real, like eventually you can.
Use that AI maybe to replace CGI. Right. Maybe that's what it is. Maybe what it'll be instead of heavily relying on CGI, we'll rely on using AI instead of
Allen Halas: Yeah.
Dave: I don't see a problem with that.
the people that are creative [:Dave: Mm-hmm.
Allen Halas: uh, survive in the sense of being able to keep working regularly.
Like
Dave: Right.
Allen Halas: challenging something or making something that is new and different, or trying to figure out what new and different even looks like. Those are gonna be the people that are gonna survive in terms of career wise. Um, and when it comes to music, like the people that are gonna be able to adapt and change and grow those things and manipulate the AI in a way that they want, those are gonna be the people that actually have something going for themselves and will be able to sustain a career.
I think too, the people that embrace it, at least, like I
Dave: Yeah.
Allen Halas: think there's room for a great musician. It's just a matter of how do you mix those things and utilize them as a tool.
s to, you know, influencers, [:Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: and you know, you have millions of people that are listening to this, you know, do you. Do you feel like there, there's somewhat of an influence where a lot of this crap that we're seeing online of the takeover and stuff is because of influencers like this that have podcasters that are pushing stuff like this out?
Allen Halas: Yeah, I think,
Dave: that has, I think it has a little to do with it.
Allen Halas: it is hard when the narrative right away is the public reaction. a lot of people, maybe not everybody was, this is gonna take our job, this is gonna take our whatever. Like, but I think there's also, like you said, people that bring those things on. Because, you know, anytime that we mention as podcasters, anytime we mention ai, like. That is gonna bump something up in terms of viewership, in terms of listenership, because people are interested, they
Dave: Oh yeah.
en the people that you bring [:Dave: entitled to his opinion.
Allen Halas: yeah. And so my counterpoint was we were cutting down trees by hand for years, and then a chainsaw showed up and then we figured out how to use the chainsaw. So in the industry that I'm in, if you don't figure out how to use the chainsaw. You're gonna get left behind. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not saying that I'm having AI write articles for me or anything like that. Like again, still human input, but
Dave: Yeah.
Allen Halas: out ways to be productive on the backend and be able to do more using it?
Of course,:Make the playlist for what it's gonna be. You can only use 10 songs. I wanna vary it up as much as possible. Immediately productive. I can go in, I can record, you know, a, a show for December. I can record it tomorrow and know what I'm gonna play.
Dave: Yeah,
Allen Halas: it's, it's totally just in how you use it and where you use it, but like to your original point, when the narrative is all this is bad, that it doesn't encourage anybody to take a leap into it and try to, you know, advance themselves using it. So
Dave: no.
Allen Halas: think it could be detrimental, especially in parts of the country that I live in too.
Dave: Yeah.
k to that conversation about [:Right?
Dave: Yeah, and I, I mean, you, you touched on something which is really true in the sense of we are, like, even in the auto industry, uh, a very big reality is, is that the era of parts changers and horrible mechanics, you're gone like, I'm not trying to be mean. Like your, your, your life, your career is over. Because we've reached an era where you have German manufacturers and Japanese manufacturers, they're sick and tired of this crop.
person could drive their car [:You are literally driving a vehicle and it's, it's extremely dangerous to drive because you're having transmission issues. You, you're having your suspension that's falling apart. The same thing with the auto, same thing with the music industry too. You have people that are stuck in this stupid bubble of their heads and it's like, you're making the same garbage crap wrap.
It doesn't even sound good anymore. It's like, well, we're trying to be like, you know, run DMC. I'm like, you can never be run DMC.
Allen Halas: Yeah.
Dave: never be Nas, you will never be Cypress Hill. Okay. They, they were insane writers for their time, even now.
Allen Halas: you're, I think you're given that too much credit. I think that in mainstream hip hop right now, there's a lot of, you know, there's a reason that hip hop had fallen outta popularity as the most popular genre. It's still definitely like a very, very popular genre, don't
Dave: Yeah.
[:There are artists that I will never listen to because just sounds formulaic and boring to me, and I've heard the same thing get dropped every Friday for me from 20 other artists for the last five years. You know, like, it, it definitely is, uh, it gets stagnant to a point where people say, well, algorithm tells us that I'm supposed to like this, so we make that and like it just does not spur creativity in any sense.
nagogue or the church or the [:Because that's what it's, it's like either you can either get out of your own mind, like for example, yourself, right? And be able to have a radio show, be able to do podcasting, collaborate with other artists, be able to explore around the United States and figure out what's going around. And actually make something that's meaningful.
Okay. Not just clickbait crap over and overnight. And I'm like, it, it irritates the, it irritates me because it's like the whole purpose of being creative is being genuine to yourself. You are representing yourself as an artist and as a creator. Why the hell are you chasing after numbers, numbers?
Allen Halas: Well, numbers do mean money in the media space, unfortunately. But I, I get what you're saying though, like
Dave: It's not, it's,
Allen Halas: Yeah. When I
Dave: it's not, it's not a good foundation. That's what I'm trying to point out. You're creating a, you, you're creating your career on a crumbling foundation that has no real structure. I.
y things because I, I follow [:There's a better
Dave: Yeah.
watch it and be like, well, [:Dave: No,
Allen Halas: a,
Dave: no. And
len Halas: media landscape in:Dave: it is, and you know, for example, like there's nothing wrong with being able to post things on social media and trying to be able to build your, like kudos if you're able to do that. And I think that's a, for example, like I know a comedian out in New York, her name is Leah Foster, and she has this thing where she'll post little reels of her walking around the city and she'll talk about real stuff, like stuff that she's going through, different things that she's learned along the way in her career or something that she's run along from like talking with a friend that is more genuine.
. That's what I think is the [:I promise you it's not gonna be popular tomorrow.
ll. So what do we have here? [:Dave: No, 100% I like. I think one of the greatest examples I have ever seen in my, my personally in my life is the fact that we live in a time where are A CDC. Still performing
Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
n a CDC always from the late [:Like they have. And even I have their new album. I got their new album on vinyl, the, it was the custom one that's yellow.
Allen Halas: Okay.
Dave: I freaking love it. And it came out like what? Like three, four years ago?
Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: Because it's still genuine to their band. It's new, it's fun, it's creative, it's got a new beat to it, but it's not trying to be popular, you know, or chasing after trends.
It holds up to the testament of time. And like you said, you can have a very successful career, but if you chase out of chase after things that are unrealistic. Tell me if I'm wrong. You're not gonna last very long in this industry. You maybe be successful, a good five, six years.
iate happen for them and. If [:So they do the most current thing that doesn't feel real to what they're doing. And when they make songs like that, it doesn't age well, right? Like it doesn't, it doesn't become a sustainable career because the next thing you do has to be that it has to fall back in line with that. And then eventually trends change. Things change, the world changes. you still sound like that, or you still look that way. Like it, there is no, you know, because that impatience caused that.
ircles like Diddy and, um, I [:But, um, now you're in your twenties and thirties, you're traumatized. You don't know how to function as a normal person. You don't really know on how to create really content on your own. 'cause you're constantly relying on other people to create. That's the thing too, by the way, right? Where you have these artists where they're not really artists.
You know, you look at their roster and the stuff that they're making and you just see like 16 paragraphs of writers, producers, mixers. So you're just standing there
Allen Halas: Yeah.
Dave: and you're just
Allen Halas: product. You are
Dave: right.
Allen Halas: the creative behind it.
Dave: No, and like I can kind of under saying the same thing where you're creating a, you have a radio show and you want to be able to represent the best of Milwaukee.
rough that and actually find [:Allen Halas: Yeah. And one of the things that is honestly the most beneficial of having a radio show and having a platform to, to discover artists is being able to dig and find, you know, new artists on band camp and SoundCloud and Spotify and
Dave: Yeah.
Allen Halas: like, there's definitely been artists that I, because what I usually do is I look through all the new releases.
You can search it geographically. Um, I'll look through a ton of new releases. Sometimes I'll find a band that maybe they're just putting their first thing out and it sounds very DIY, but you can tell that it's there, that they've got something that goes on the radio. You know what I mean? Like that goes out, out to people or that goes to my website, that goes to breaking and entering and people can see it and experience it for themselves because you can tell that they have the thing, right?
o like being able to find an [:Dave: Yeah,
Allen Halas: made a push to get out there, that's a great feeling when you're like, look at this cool diamond in the rough that we found, you know? Um, not because we can say that we found it, but just because we can take that thing that they made and put that out to a larger audience just by being who we are along the way.
So
Dave: y Yeah.
Allen Halas: having the website, things like that, and finding those young bands and being able to put them out into a larger platform is super fulfilling for me.
Dave: And it touches on some of the, something that we forget so badly as human beings is we are imperfect creatures.
Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: We have always been imperfect, and I think chasing after perfection is. It's not, it's not feasible. Like, you know what? As hard as you're gonna be as an artist, there's always gonna be things that you're not perfect at.
he best singer, you know, or [:I've, I've met people like this, that the only thing that they're really good at is writing.
Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: that they're able to sit down and you're like, holy shit, you wrote that.
Allen Halas: Yeah.
Dave: you're just like, whoa. But you put them in front of a computer. They, they can't make beats if their life dependent on it.
Does that make you any less of an artist? No. It just means that you have skills and things that you're, you're not perfect at, obviously, but you're a little bit, you know, you have a little bit more feasible and ease to be able to do those things.
Allen Halas: Right.
Dave: I think that awareness alone is so important.
roduct of people taking, you [:Dave: No.
s to be on beat. Like having [:Not the
Dave: Yeah,
Allen Halas: me that this 10 seconds needs to be a great song.
Dave: I, I learned that honestly, I got, um, I also got this on vinyl. I got Coda from Led Zeppelin
Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: and I think, not saying all artists, but I think some artists, if you really wanna understand that idea of being able to accept in perfections and just wing it, listen to Coda, because Coda is one of the great examples of weir.
ve a little more grainy than [:Some is lower than others. You, and you know that with vinyl, it's like you're listening to a song, you're like, why is this so low? And then you raise it and then all of a sudden the next song comes on. You're like, oh my God, it's too loud and you gotta lower it again. But that, I think, is a really valuable lesson in life because it shows that don't hide what you're not perfect at.
Try it, see, put it out there. If it's not great, it's not great.
Allen Halas: a lot of the, like I've been going back to like a lot of like eighties punk rock stuff and the stuff that just got put out because they didn't care. They didn't care what it, you know, that it wasn't perfect.
Dave: the dead, like the dead Kennedys. Yeah. They didn't give a shit. They didn't care.
studio. That's what came out [:Dave: I know,
Allen Halas: the stuff that people latch onto.
Dave: I know. [:You know, this idea of like, oh, I'm gonna change the world. Like obviously neither of us are changing the world, but we can definitely try to do something to change either maybe our communities, the collaborations with other artists around us, and. Able to give a little, you know, a little judge, you know, putting a little extra spice, put a little, you know, Crayola seasoning in there.
I think that notion and idea [:Allen Halas: Yeah,
Dave: like it's not happening
Allen Halas: Yeah. Most of
Dave: that you, most of us are,
Allen Halas: that impactful, for
Dave: but you can do something impactful for yourself and for the people that are around you.
And I think that's the most important.
Allen Halas: Yes, totally.:But something that like, you know, it separates people is if, if you tell yourself, I wanna be the best at this, you're gonna work to be the best at this.
Dave: Exactly. Yeah. Um, be before we wrap up, because we do have visuals on this podcast, and I've been saying this for the past hour that we've been talking. Let's get a elephant out of the room. I can see that you've got tons of records in the back. Uh huh. What, what got, I know, what got me into the craze of buying records.
What, what, what, uh, what stung you? It's usually like it stinks you, and you're just like, you gotta keep on getting this shit.
and like, because I was like [:So when I was making beats, there would be times where I would take vinyl and I would try to make samples out of it. Now I was like very recognizable music that would never get cleared. But I, I definitely wanted to like run vinyl into my computer even knowing well that I could download those songs. I don't know why something in my brain said do that. Um, but then I started playing like old punk records from my parents on vinyl. Like I have an Elvis Costello bootleg behind me that's super rare that I used to listen to all the time. Um, so when I had my first apartment, I had like space to put my stereo in and I brought the turntable with me. Um, and then a good majority of what is behind me is like stuff that I actually inherited from an uncle who had a full, like vinyl room where, uh, know, like he had an entire like,
Dave: Bro.
cases, literally these cases [:And so now I'm in that phase two now of just like buying and selling records too. Um, so that's been a fun little thing for me to do. I sell records on whatnot and, uh, and some of it are things that I would never listen to. And now I'm in this process of like, flipping it over to that. The majority of this wall are gonna be things that I actually like and wanna keep and hold onto.
ies of it were produced. So, [:Dave: Yeah.
Allen Halas: but it's always been like a thing now, like there's still a vinyl player in reach for me and I will still listen to records on vinyl when I'm in here working on stuff, you know, so like, it, it just, I dunno, just something cool.
And doing it not because vinyl got popular, I just had always had it for years and years and years, so.
Dave: Same. Now, I, I, I feel the same. I had, this is the cool thing, and I, especially with, um, especially with music, right? Like I had a couple of years ago, I was in Salem, Massachusetts, and I went into this thrift store and I was talking with this guy and he was a really, really nice guy. And we were, you know, going back and forth.
He says to me, he says, I have something for you. He goes to the, like, you know, the back of his counter and he pulls out an El Elvis pre, I have a first edition Elvis Presley, like his first album.
Allen Halas: Okay.
Dave: pulls,
Allen Halas: cool.
't, I don't even know how to [:You know how rare to see something like that in front of your eyes? And he's like, yeah, my brother had it, you know, for years and whatever. And he's like, I'll give it to you for a hundred dollars. I have a $980 vinyl record for a hundred dollars
Allen Halas: Yeah.
Dave: in my vinyl collection. And that just speaks to testament.
It's not about like, you know, trends or whatever. That music connection right there where you can have a record of something that like means something and is physical and it has an actual story behind it. You make stories as you collect them. That's what I love the most about 'em.
Allen Halas: well, yeah, and like in inheriting this big collection of
Dave: Yeah.
Allen Halas: part of that was I kept, uh, there was a black box that was hidden in a closet at my uncle's place. And he was an artist. He was a visual artist. I have his like, art actually hanging on my walls too. that's some, that's the only art that's in this room pretty much.
ah. All things that he made. [:Dave: You know how rare that,
Allen Halas: some pretty valuable things in there
Dave: you know how rare that is?
Allen Halas: the band
Dave: Some.
Allen Halas: Rozen, which is like a hardcore, you know, icon band.
Dave: That's like the holy
Allen Halas: of
Dave: grail.
Allen Halas: I have the first pressing of their 45 of their seven inch, um, a band
Dave: Oh my god.
Allen Halas: in Milwaukee. I have some records from 'em and like old punk records from Milwaukee because that was what he
Dave: Dude,
Allen Halas: So.
Dave: is, that's [:Allen Halas: in
Dave: just,
Allen Halas: box. That's the never sell box is right there, you know,
alk into a record shop in the:Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: a hundred, maybe 200.
Allen Halas: Yeah.
Dave: Like there's no words.
There's no words of how rare and valuable that is, like just on a music standpoint.
Allen Halas: yeah, and some of them were just handed to him by bands, I'm sure,
Dave: bro.
Allen Halas: he knew or somebody that knew somebody and or, you know, he was at a club and said, Hey, I'll buy your, your record while you're here. You know, um, it is
Dave: That's crazy.
Allen Halas: to see like there are some price stickers on some of these from like seventies record shops that are, you know, they bought this record for a buck, right.
Or, or [:Dave: It's crazy.
Allen Halas: now it's something that is worth much more than that.
Dave: Yeah. Like $500. It's like, you know, you put a few more zeros next to that one.
Allen Halas: Yeah.
Dave: Listen, Alan, I, I want to tell you, man, like, I, I really, seriously, I really appreciate conversations like this because we really get to get into the wrong gritty of what it means to be artists. Especially like going through the phase, the story, the life, and like all the changes and things coming around, and like being able to have that passion and even having past generations being able to pass those things over.
I think is absolutely incredible. And I think like that really does it, it shapes you as a person and it really like, allows you to keep pushing forward and being able to not only just represent your hometown, but really be able to represent real genuine artists that do deserve a chance.
Allen Halas: Yeah.
Dave: Deserve a little spotlight.
Yeah,
my story too and talk about [:Dave: yeah,
Allen Halas: it takes podcasts like that to also, you know, like, like yours, to help get that story out to people. So
Dave: of course.
Allen Halas: this too, and having me on.
Dave: Oh, my pleasure, my man. And for anybody out there, um, you have an incredible website. You've got just tons of everything. You have like your artists, you got posts, you've got venue information. You wanna break that down, like regarding your podcast, your radio show word, like everybody can find your stuff.
Allen Halas: Yeah, absolutely. Um, so the website is breaking and entering.net. There is a Milwaukee section that's heavy, that's, you know, our main focus. But there is an everywhere else section too, where we cover good stuff from around, you know, just independent music in general. Uh, my radio show is Friday nights. You can hear it on FM 1 0 2 1 in Milwaukee, but you could, they have a web player, you can listen in, you know, whatever.
t's what this was for a very [:'cause that's what we have to do in this world now is, is put all that stuff out there, so.
Dave: Oh my. And you are preaching to the choir, man. The amount of times I've get people that come on and I'm like trying to, 'cause I, I primarily just do like Instagram promotions when episodes are coming out
Allen Halas: Mm-hmm.
Dave: and just trying to be able to tag and it's like, okay, they don't use their name. All right. So, and then I gotta go back into Pod Mash and then I gotta go on Google and then I gotta do a little bit of searching.
And then I find
Allen Halas: Yeah.
Dave: keep it simple, keep it easy. It's Allen House everywhere on social media, you know, where the website is, links and everything's below beautiful. Makes everybody's life easier.
Allen Halas: Yes.
Dave: it.
Allen Halas: yeah. So
Dave: Well,
Allen Halas: Cool.
here and anywhere you listen [:So with that, motherfuckers, we will catch you on the next one. All right, peace out there.
