ifitbeyourwill Podcast
“ifitbeyourwill" Podcasts is on a mission to talk to amazing indie artists from around the world! Join us for cozy, conversational episodes where you'll hear from talented and charismatic singer-songwriters, bands from all walks of life talk about their musical process & journey. Let's celebrate being music lovers!
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ifitbeyourwill Podcast
ifitbeyourwill S05E07 • Danny Bateman of FROG
Danny Bateman's musical journey unfolds like a richly textured composition – beginning with classical piano at age seven, where he discovered the profound connection between player and composer. "I'm experiencing what Mozart's body feels like 200 years later," he reflects, highlighting how this early training built the foundation for his innovative approach to songwriting.
The pivotal moment came during his first recording studio session as a teenager. Witnessing the magic of production techniques—overdubbing, multiple takes, vocal doubling—crystallized his future path. "That was when I knew this is what I want to do for the rest of my life," Bateman shares, though he admits his real education came through hands-on experience rather than formal training.
What makes Bateman's creative process uniquely compelling is his embrace of improvisation and structure simultaneously. "Form creates the walls that you sit in," he explains. "Without form, nothing means anything." This philosophy manifests in his latest project with FROG, "1000 Variations on the Same Song," inspired by Lil Wayne's mixtape approach—marathon recording sessions yielding dozens of improvised pieces. With his brother Stevie on drums, Bateman captures spontaneous creative moments, later selecting the most memorable to re-record on his increasingly lo-fi eight-track tape machine.
The results speak for themselves—sold-out shows at venues like Bowery Ballroom and an upcoming West Coast tour with rapidly disappearing tickets. For aspiring musicians, Bateman offers crystal-clear advice: "You need to fail a lot, iterate, attempt." He emphasizes that accumulating "reps" through prolific creation is the only path to mastery. Most importantly, "If you're not having fun, then the song isn't good. If you are having fun, then the song is good."
Ready to experience FROG's unique sound? Catch their West Coast tour kicking off next week, or dive into their extensive catalog featuring some of indie music's most joyfully authentic compositions. The beauty of Bateman's approach lies in its simplicity—creating music worth making for its own sake, with each new recording building toward something increasingly extraordinary.
It took our jobs off the floor. Let us go off the floor. It gets pretty cold along the line. Here we are. Welcome everyone to another episode of Beulah Podcast. We're coming to you on a pretty laid-back Friday. I have Danny Bateman from Frog here who is down in Brooklyn hanging and doing his thing, and we're going to kind of do a whole survey of his musical journey so far, and we have to do it within 25 minutes. So no pressure, but we're gonna roll like there's no rolling. Um. So, danny, thanks so much for taking me up on this offer. I've. I was harassing jamie actually quite a bit, your, your pr guy, to to to get you to come on, because I was just so into you.
FROG:Oh, thank you, Appreciate that.
colleyc:Yeah, well, I was really excited that you finally had said yes, I think I've been asking him since season two, but he was very gracious and he's like, oh, I'll get to them. And then he's like, why don't you have this person come on, and then it just evolved. And anyway, all that, that to say I'm super happy to have you here. Um, then we usually like to start off with kind of like I've kind of shifted my question a little bit. So if you think back over your musical career so far, what were a few of the tipping points that really propelled your music forward or allowed you to get more recognition or shifted how you approach music in a way? What are some of those moments that come to you when you think about how you got to where you are now?
FROG:that were really poignant moments for you how you got to where you are now. That were really poignant moments for you. Um, so, uh, you know I was seven years old when I started playing the piano and that was a pretty big moment for me. You know, I took lessons with, um, someone who taught me classical music. I still love classical music and I love playing the piano and I love playing, um, you know, classical music on the piano.
FROG:I feel like there's something really unique about experiencing music through playing it, through sight reading, because you're the artist and you're also experiencing the composer and what they do. You're bringing it to life in the way that you can. But, like, recently I've been obsessively playing mozart. Like all the sonatas and, um, the way he plays. Like, if you play his music enough like for as much as I have you can start to see the things that he does.
FROG:Like every artist, especially the type of artists that I usually fall in love with, who compulsively make music like, it becomes an addiction for them. Like Charlie Parker's, likelie parker's, like that, mozart's like that yeah, they tend to do the same things a lot. Like they'll have little little bird isms. They have little mozart isms and um, it's, it's about, it's like the kind of things like, like you know, nicola, nicola yok, he does the Sambor shuffle. That's his move before he he skyhooks over you, right? So everybody has little things that they do and if you play enough Mozart, you can start to ape him, you can start to do the things he does and you can sort of like understand the way his body moves and what he does. And that was crazy to me, right, that you could actually I'm I'm experiencing what his body feels like 200 years later and that that's like an amazing like, sort of like um thing. So that was big.
FROG:Starting to learn the piano, then I was in rock bands, uh, like, starting around age 12, 13, um, I first went at the recording studio when I was like 15 or 16 and made the record with my band in high school and that was like a pretty big moment for me because that was the first time I ever like saw someone use a recording studio that knew what they were doing. Um, and the process of like overdubbing, of doing takes, of like doubling, of like singing a bunch of times, like that whole process of like building, you know, like a pop record, uh really like had a major effect on me. Like that was like the first time I was like, okay, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
FROG:I don't know how it's going to happen, but like it's just like really, it's really like hooked me you know, yeah, um, and so then, you know, I went to like recording school, but I wasn't really a good student, so I didn't really learn that much there.
FROG:Um, uh, and I just taught it to myself later by doing it, which is the only real way to make art. Yes, and then you know, since then, like you know, every time you make a record I'm learning, and that's the most exciting thing for me is I love to learn Every single time I make another record record. I'm learning so much, more and more and I'm getting better and better at making music and, um, that's really exciting to me because I think that's cool. I've gotten really good now and I'm getting better. That's a really exciting thing to me. Like, I get better every day. I do think today that I would never be able to do yesterday and that that's amazing to me. That's the fun thing about music to me is like growing, getting finding more things, finding more little, little corners of the world that I've never been to, you know yeah, totally, totally.
colleyc:I love what you said too about feeling like that nostalgia of, of feeling like your body, feeling how Mozart felt while he was like that kind of structure and almost like the root, the routine that, like you don't want to call art routine because it is, you know, creative and imagination comes in and feel and heart. But there is structures to songs, right. You can relate it to a mathematical kind of idea, right, it's very computational in the sense that songs usually have a structure that they follow. Do you feel that you've established kind of a structure style that you go to when you're writing songs, or has it kind of always evolved, as you said with your music, where you're just learning new things all the time, or do you have a set kind of like structure of how a song comes to be?
FROG:I mean, it's a really good question. You know, form is the most essential aspect of any art. Like, form creates the walls that you sit in, right. Form gives meaning to everything you do. Without form, nothing means anything. Bunuel says that the art that tries to have no influences is the most formulaic of all art. Like it's the most, it steals the most right. Right, and every form is really.
FROG:Someone doing a version of an old song right. Someone doing a song is a form, right. A type of song Like this is a country song, right. You have to have a hook. That's funny, it's like. And the hook is it creates the purpose of the verses, right.
FROG:Or a funk song the funk song's got to be a fucking dope riff. And then, um, james brown is just like, just talking over it. He says one, he's got a hook, and then he just vibes for like right, you know what I mean? That's the form, right. And um, so yeah, I mean like, like Mozart, for example, like the sonatas, the sonata form. You say something in one key, right. And then you say another thing in the five of that key, and then you go and you do some fun stuff and then you go back to the first thing, and then you say the same thing you said in the five, but now you say it in the one, and, and that's a sonata, right? Or the first, or yeah, that's the sonata form, and then you have a fast song, a slow song, sometimes you have a dance, like a minuet and trio, and then you have a really fast song to end. So that's like it's like a set, you know, and that's all. All of his son eyes are like that and they're all exactly the same, every single one, exactly the same, um, and that's why they're so beautiful is because you know a lot of the things that I was saying, like a lot of the things that I'm exploring with the whole variations thing.
FROG:It's like, once you, once you um establish a form, once you um set in stone the things that can happen in your art, then you can start to discover what else is there. And there's so much else. That's infinite things you know, like. Here's an example jk rowling, I don't know if you've read harry potter's. Your kids have read harry potter at all, yep, okay. Well, harry Potter book is exactly the same. He starts, he's with the Dursleys, he's in the summer, right, there's a lot of drama. His birthday happens right, and then something cool happens. He goes with Ron. There's like he meets up with his friends and then they go to school. And then there's like he meets up with his friends and then they go to school and then there's like ominous stuff happening.
colleyc:And then in the end he meets Voldemort and beats him Right. That's it, you got it.
FROG:That was four Right, yep. And she writes the same book over and over again, but she gets better and better at it. Every book is better and better. The last one when it's like incredible Right, better. The last one when it's like incredible right, and she's a master right. So there's something to learn from that right. Repetition is the father of learning, right. Once you understand the form, you can do it better than anyone else. And so that's the idea of the variations, is you have to set in stone the things that you want to play with. These are your instruments, these are your flavors. You know what I mean. This is your recipe, right, and you can just do it in all sorts of ways. You know infinite ways, and that's that's sort of the variations project. You know, like I, the first, like 11 of them, or 10 of them. I put on this record, um, but me and Stevievie, we go in there, we we'll do like, we'll do like 30, 40 songs in one night.
FROG:You know, like um, honestly like serious production well, that's what I'm saying, chris like you just like jk rowling, got better and better at it and then she became the best by the seven books, the best fantasy writer. Like that's one of the best fantasy series ever. Right, and um, once you do something enough, then you can start to do something like it. Things get really exciting. You can start to be able to do things that you could never. You never could before and um, that's what's sort of exciting about doing this project. You know what I mean. You know a lot of it is related to Lil Wayne.
FROG:He was doing a lot of mixtapes in the 2007, 2008, 2009 era and he would do them all in one or or two days. And there's no choruses. There's no. There's just beats that he likes, or like any beats that someone puts on, and he just flows. You record the whole thing.
FROG:He'll stop, he'll think about it and then record the next part and like he has his little cribs they call them crips like he has little things he says.
FROG:He says like wheezy f, baby, and the f is for something, the f is for front door, because that's where I bring it.
FROG:So if you to woo, if you bang it right, and he always like has the same types of things that he says over and over and, over and over again and he just has so much fun because he knows exactly what happens in a little wind rap song and he takes those. And he just has so much fun because he knows exactly what happens in a little way in rap song and he takes those and he does. He can do this a million different ways, like infinite ways, and that's what the mixtapes are. You know he's not. He can just flow and just have so much fun and not have anyone else to worry about rapping or doing hooks. You know what I mean? Absolutely those are. The most exciting way in music to me is like the mixtapes, especially the ones he made from 2006 to 2009 or went to jail, um, and that that was also like really, uh, influential on, like the variations project right, right, and I mean thinking about that.
colleyc:I love. I love your words and how you're describing that. I mean thinking about that. I love your words and how you're describing that. How do you apply this to your songwriting process? Like, how does a song come from an idea? You have in your head that seed of an idea to flushing it out, to seeing it go on tape, and when do you know when a song is worth keeping going with rather than just kind of throwing it on the floor and I'll come back to that maybe some other time. It's just not working anymore. Like, do you, do you have songs that start as ideas that blossom in others that that just don't meet meet the level that you're trying to get at?
FROG:um. So the answer is, of course, but like you know, back in the day I think I was like much more like um, like I wrote, like other people, you know, like um, I was working a song for a while and I would try it a bunch of ways and I would write the lyrics, like I hear people talk about songwriting and I used to do it in a way that's sort of analogous to what they do. But now, like now, I just I just go honestly, does it start with?
Speaker 1:like the music or is it?
colleyc:okay, all improvised.
FROG:I'm improvising every single thing that happens right, and we'll improvise all night. There'll be 30 songs that we improvised and the ones that we like. We're like. Can we use this improvised version and just like, maybe like double the vocals? And usually the answer is no, because I was like slurring my words or something. But like, sometimes the answer is yes and those were really fun. That's what I aspire to like. I want to like go on. I want to like stream making a whole record live. Never wrote any of the songs before. It's all improvised and then put that out. That's what I like. That's the mixtape, that's. That's little wayne, I'm doing it. I just I'm writing the beat too as we go.
FROG:You know, I'm like I just got more weapons you know, I mean, he's better than me at what he does. Obviously he's the greatest ever right, but um, I can't play the piano like I can do those improv sessions though danny did those.
colleyc:Do you just hit record on those like is that kind of like your incubator time, like where you're just trying to flush ideas out and, um, like, everything gets recorded, and then you listen back to those and say, okay, that chunk was great.
FROG:That's great too that maybe we can combine those two or like kind of dissect it all up so that it fits inside again the structure of a frog song so, yeah, like I do stuff like you're you're describing, but, like you know, as I keep doing this, as I keep like now I make music like compulsively, like I'm doing it, I don't, I can't stop and um, but I like that. It's a good thing that I can't stop, but I can't and um, like so, instead of like it being something that I'm doing consciously, I just go right, I'm just improvising songs and songs and songs, and now there's so much music that I've recorded I can't even listen to all of it. You know what I mean.
colleyc:Like I really can't on time. So I mean even the stuff you put out.
FROG:You put out a ton of stuff which is you have no idea more.
colleyc:Next week, right, right. And with all of this recording history and all of your catalog that you have, how do you find that the latest fits in there? Um, you know 100 variations on the same song. Where do you classify that amongst your, your catalog?
FROG:so you know, I spent a whole year doing what I'm describing just like endless improvised sessions with steve and I think all those things are like actually insane, like some of the things that happened those nights were are like I don't know how that's possible, but, like you know, again, I couldn't even listen to all of it, like so, like I just like took the ones that I remembered that happened and then I recorded them again on tape and that's what it is like. It's a really like. We did it really really quickly. It was like like, like you know, like a couple weeks, like a week or a few sessions, you know what I mean and then, and then we put it out because we like the way it sounded, so like that.
FROG:That's the only bit of like editing or forethought I put in. It's just I remembered that those songs were good and so I did them again. Um, on the eight track tape, my eight track is I like the way it sounds but it's's broken. Like now every song is more and more lo-fi because every track is breaking more and more. Okay, I have to get it fixed, but I haven't had time.
colleyc:Do you self-record Like, do you go into studios once you have like a group of songs you're ready to?
FROG:Everything myself. I track it, I mix it, I master it, I write it. I play every instrument except mix it, I master it, I write it. I play every instrument except for drums. Stevie plays.
colleyc:That's your brother, right.
FROG:Yeah, yeah, okay, cool, stevie's my brother. But yeah, it's always good to have someone there, because otherwise you'll spend like a month trying to get this song right. And if you just looked over in his eyes and you saw that he wasn't vibing on it, you would just move on instantly. You would wait, you, you would that whole month was wasted because that song sucks. That's why it's not working.
colleyc:That's really interesting and, like, since this has been out it's been out a month now um been in the world. How have you felt the reaction has been towards it, towards towards your latest?
FROG:I think it's been pretty awesome. Um, you know like we sold out the bowery ballroom, which yeah a month earlier blew my mind yeah, um, but madison square garden is coming next.
colleyc:You know what I mean. That's it. I need money.
FROG:Time to raise the bar.
colleyc:Time to raise the bar. That's cool and like what's? What's people's reaction to your show? Like I mean, I know you're on stage and the lights are there and it's, you know, chaotic, and but when you look at it in the crowd and see people that are watching you, what's the vibe that you get from crowds when you're?
FROG:performing. So when I was early in my career, everyone was asleep. When I was on stage, later in my career, they weren't asleep anymore, but there weren't that many of them, okay. And now, now, later in my career, they weren't asleep anymore, but there weren't that many, okay. And now now, the good shows, people are fucking very into them. I don't have to remember my own lyrics because the crowd is just screaming it so that's what I was gonna ask you.
colleyc:Like. I talked to one musician. He said I knew that I was connecting with people when I they were. They knew the lyrics better than I did.
FROG:Like it's not hard to know the lyrics better than me.
colleyc:I forget them all the time I make songs, so I can don't have to remember them I remember when I was performing I always had to bring a a page of paper with the first line because I figured if I could get the first line, everything else would just start tumbling. You know, hopefully that's what. And it kind of helped, because usually it was like what's that first line? Then you'd kind of like start looking at people freeze up. So I learned the hard way that just write the first fucking line on there and then maybe and it totally was a good trick it helped, um yeah that can help too.
FROG:Uh, singing. It is the only way to in art, the only way to learn to do something is to do it right yeah, totally.
colleyc:I uh, I read this aristotle quote to these kids today and that you don't learn to do anything without doing it. You know, I mean he only said it like five million years ago, but it still applies. You know that you could, you can study and read and watch videos and listen to a gazillion tracks, but until you get your hands involved in doing something, particularly in the arts field, I mean forget about it. Forget about it. It's not going to. You know it won't stick.
FROG:Nothing else will suffice. I cannot agree more. That's it. That's it. Try to get out there, do it, that's it. Do it all. Do it to the end, release it. It's not done until you release it.
colleyc:Yep, yeah.
colleyc:Well here's my final question for you, danny, because I'm cognizant of our time and, again, I really appreciate this time. This was a really fun conversation and I guess my last question to you is, seeing as that you've had this pretty intense relationship with music, what kind of advice do you give to those younger kids that are just starting up, or you know they're out of high school and they want to start a band and like, what are some of the things that you learned in your journey so far that have been very helpful for you when it comes to doing your own music?
FROG:Yeah, uh, the most important thing in art and life is you need to fail a lot, you need to iterate, you need to to attempt, you need to really try and make the best record you can right now, and then you need to release it, and then you need to learn from that over and over again ad infinitum. That's the most important thing. It's the actually only important thing is that you need the reps. Now. I've made so much music that I have had more reps than almost anyone, not more than little wayne, but a lot of people right now.
FROG:I think that's why I can do this is because I have I I've done it so many times, okay, and and so, like, I think, um, also, like you know, music's about having fun, and if you're not having fun, then the song isn't good, and if you are having fun, then the song is good and it's not that complicated, right, you have, it has to be fun. If it's not fun, then you shouldn't be doing it. There you go, um, that's cool, yeah like the the business part of it.
FROG:Do not spend any time on the business part of it at all. It's not worth spending time on. If it works out, that's great. If it doesn't, don't worry about it, it's about having fun. It's worth doing in and of itself because that's what you like doing, because you're a musician. And if you don't like doing it, then why are you fucking doing it, right?
colleyc:do something else. Yeah, you know, and you saying that like it sounds like you're always having fun and on most of the songs you write that are out there in the world, they just make you feel like I feel how you feel, you know, and it's it's happy, you know, it's it's interest, it's it's drawing you in, like all those beautiful things that you hope happen. I find that in your, in your, in your songwriting. So, thank you, I mean the latest record's just been really on repeat for me, um, plus all the other ones. I mean, jeez, you have so many freaking great songs. Thank you, I really appreciate that, that that you're still putting music out and we'll just keep listening to it. And finally, danny, what's what's 2025.? What can people anticipate? Can you share any music that's coming out, or tour dates or anything that that people could check you out and buy a record or a shirt or support you in some way?
FROG:We're going on tour next week. Oh shit, okay, on the West coast, nice, um uh, la and New York are sold out. Um, sf is running low, so you better get there. Portland and Vancouver there's a bunch of tickets left, but I think you should get there if you want to. You should really, if you want to come see us, get on the internet and buy some tickets, because they're running fast.
colleyc:There we go, thank god, yeah that's encouraging, though, when tickets are selling.
FROG:I I just need money, man. I need money very badly and I'm very happy that people are excited to give it to me, because that is very convenient.
colleyc:I'm handy right, absolutely, absolutely. Money is what makes the world go round, unfortunately, but at the same time, it allows us to do the things we want to do If you haven't. So, um, go and buy a record. Check out frog. Get a record at the your local record store if you can go and see them live. Go and see him live. Go and say hi to danny. I'm sure he's would be very happy to say hello, I'm selling t-shirts.
FROG:I sell my own t-shirts. There you go my little scheme, right? I feel like people want to talk to me. They have to buy a t-shirt, or or else it's awkward. You know what I mean. What are you doing talking to me? We're talking t-shirts. I like that. You have to buy it.
colleyc:There you go, and maybe you could even drink for for for his performance. Um, check it out. A hundred variations on the same song came out a month ago. Go get it. A thousand sorry, more than that, a thousand variations on the same song. Plus is just go check out his catalog, check out his band camp page that he's prolific in his writing and from our conversation that we just had, he I don't think he's stopping guys. So, uh, there'll be more to follow up with frog down the road. So, danny, I will definitely have you back on on the next record and, uh, I hope that we can uh continue this conversation because it's been really a fascinating one. So, thank you thanks, chris cheers.
Speaker 5:Thanks for having me pleasure, pleasure can you tell me that you ain't my type? That's okay, girl, I don't mind, it's just tell me that you can't sit still Ain't this town served alcohol. It's got me crawling up a wall. I was pounding up a fucking tall one.
Speaker 4:I'm fucking around, I'm fucking around, I'm fucking around, I'm fucking around, I'm fucking around, I'm fucking around, I'm bucking them down. I'm bucking them down, I'm bucking them down.
Speaker 1:You sounded clever to her, killed her in front of all her friends, but you looked over at her. I didn't need anything.
Speaker 5:You said what you felt, you didn't chill. I'm fucking up the track like my name's Jay, biller, pop, mother, dad, finn, I. I sold Bill and Cat. Just a bad man, snow cold killer. You're taking this and draw two lines through. Now we're talking sex life. Oh, we're done, do it. Now we're talking sex baby. You're walking through it so much drunk it's like a bar of QA.
Speaker 4:I'm fucking around, I'm fucking around, I'm fucking around, I'm fucking around, I'm fucking around, I'm fucking around, I'm fucking around.
Speaker 1:I'm bucking them down. I'm bucking them down, I'm bucking them down. They sounded clever to her killer, but I'm all her friends.
Speaker 5:But you looked over and she hadn't needed anything.
