He said, be brave, my son, I'll be home soon. The boy held on to hope till he got that awful news. And as they filled it up, stars and stripes, 21 guns pointed. As the shots rang out, he flinched a little each time. Then a soldier in his best dress walked up to him and you know the rest. And not only that... making dreams happen. You know, most of these veterans have got the idea of becoming a musician way before they went into the military. And Operation Encore is filling that gap from while they served in the military and helping them change their lives and live out those dreams. Operation Encore is a nonprofit. You can go to this link right there and click on it. Give them a little help. Hit that donate button. Follow them. learn about all the great things that Operation Encore does for our veterans. Hey, welcome everybody to Spirits and Stories. This is Donald Dunn, your host. Hey, we've got a great show. You know, I always love it when we get new artists that start, come to the Veterans Voice Radio family. And today we get to meet Katharina Santana. She is a Navy veteran and a musician. Let's bring on Hey, how's it going? Hi, I'm excellent. I'm so happy to be on your show. Thank you for allowing me to do this. I'm excited. I'm excited. So let's give everybody a little quick background. Where'd you grow up and kind of what brought you into the military? Grew up in Colorado, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Graduated from Cheyenne Mountain High School, 1997. Moved to San Antonio, Texas, where I studied music at University of Texas at San Antonio. And then I was singing in bands right off the bat from the age of, well, I was 18 for a very short amount of time, turned 19 from then on. But I did have a gap of a hiatus from the music when I did join the Navy. And I was just, I was still, I was actually considered old when I joined, even though I was not old. I was, oh my gosh, was I 20? I think, or no, I was 22, I believe, or something. And so they would consider that old, I guess. I didn't think so. So they would call me old lady and stuff. Because usually they go straight out of high school, I guess, is more the norm these days. So anyways, so I was in the Navy then. I joined because I was feeling a little bit like I wasn't doing anything with my life and I thought that that would be a good way to get something done and feel like I've accomplished something. And so I joined up. I didn't have a rate of specific job quite right away. I went undesignated, which I found out was really a bad idea because you know you're basically uh needle gunning and painting while the ship is in movement you know hanging on harnesses while the ship's moving and you're telling you to hurry up and paint and you're busting rust and the late night watches and you know all those things that you're just like what did I just sign up for versus going in versus going in with you know a rate and you know what you're gonna do and you know what to expect I just it was one day fly up the handle to the next day and that was how it was until finally I struck a rate for aviation maintenance men and then after my tour I got stationed at Key West and that's where I got to do that and the two helos that I kept paperwork on which they actually ended up in the movie Act of Valor while I was there you know that movie Act of Valor the two SH-60s that I used to keep the maintenance paperwork on were were those helos in my, my, uh, unit at the time. So that was pretty cool. Absolutely. Yeah. And you know, it's, it's funny that you said the, what you said about, uh, um, you know, you, you didn't continue with music while you're in and, and that's, that's really exactly where our project and our nonprofit kind of came in is trying to help people relived out those dreams for a career that they put on hold. Oh, I wish, I wish I would've had that when I was in. And, but a lot of people don't understand, you know, when you're trying to compete against people that didn't serve in the military, they're years ahead of you by time, whether you do four years, six years, 10 years, it doesn't matter. However many years you're in, you just, it's impossible to try to do a music career full time. I mean, it'll just pretty much. Yeah. You don't have any time to yourself. It's all military. Yeah. And about the time the local places where you're gigging start to know you, they ship you off somewhere else. And you, you got to start that all that process all over again, you know? So yeah, it's, it's tough. And that, that was exactly where we created a veteran's voice radio from is the fact that we, we kind of just wanted to be somebody that helped celebrate the wind. You know, there's a lot of, yeah, there's a lot of nonprofits out there that, that, handle PTSD way better than I can do. And I just kind of felt like, you know, by giving people that hand up and, and helping them navigate some of this stuff, even if, even if they don't never do it as a career and they just, they just want to tell their stories and document their stories. So man, I'm, I'm excited to have you on, um, believe it or not. You are the first artist that does dance music. Nobody else. You're the only one. So I had, where can I put her? I don't have that genre. So you are being played on Vet Mix, which is our mixed genre station. And I put you on Ranger Rockwave. Oh, nice. Yeah. So you've got several different areas. And all three of the stations really do fairly well as far as listeners base. I thought it would be a lot more uneven. You'd be able to start telling stories. what genres people really love, but our, our listening base is really close as far as our numbers. I thought that was kind of interesting. When we started, all we had was the vet mix station. That's all we had. We started with, with one artist and a subscription to airtime pro and, and now we're up to three stations and we had four. I had a comedy channel too. And man, it was just tough. Comedians are, a hard bunch of people to, to nail down and say, Hey, can, can we focus here? Oh, I bet. Cause they just fly off the handle so much. That's how they're so witty. Yep. Yep. Can't keep a solid dialogue. They're just, just go off of their mind is, you know, and they're, they're in their own head. And so. You bring up one topic and it'll just fly onto another one without you even trying. You're like, wait a minute, where were we talking about a second ago? They're great. I've watched the David Letterman, you know, the Netflix series where he, he'll like interview all sorts of people and he does a lot of comedians and it's just like you said, you know, they just go on and on. And also the Adam Sandler one where he does comedians having coffee, comedians in cars getting coffee. Their conversations are just wild. They have a different train of thought for sure. They do. And I was like, man, I'm trying to help you. And they're like, yeah, I just don't know if I have time. I said, man, all you got to do is give me your TikToks. You're already doing the content. Just give me the TikToks as one that don't require them to see you, that they would still understand the skit. And I'll just put them on the radio. Oh, there you go. I don't know if I got that kind of time. Oh, come on. Get a secretary. So I got rid of that station. But just out of curiosity, and I meant to ask you this, do you have any music videos that you've done? You know, that's the only thing that I haven't been able to do a budget for because, you know, I'm very, it's expensive to do something quality. You don't want to just use like your iPhone and just do something sloppy. So I just haven't been able to, well, time-wise as well, as I raised my son by myself. So time and money are a big factor. So that is on my very much high priority goal list. So I'd like to do that in the near future, especially now that I'm super concentrated on releasing by myself my music instead of relying on other people to do it. I'm doing it myself now. It's on the top of the priority list. So I just got to figure out how and who would be able to maybe work with me on a budget. And that's the big deal is people wanting to do things for almost free. Can you do this for almost free? Funny that you mentioned that because after this is over with, I'm going to give you a little bit of information. So Operation Encore, have you ever heard of them? Which one? Operation Encore. I have not until, well, just your intro that you mentioned it. Let me tell you what they do. They take four or five artists a year. And what they do is they take you to wherever your genre is really known. For country, it'd be like Nashville and stuff like that. They link you up with a really good artist. They call it their little boot camp. And that person helps you, teaches you through the business side of it and all that stuff. And then Operation Encore pays to have two or three songs professionally recorded. Oh, wow. After that, you're part of that family. They cover they help cover all the expenses. If you're getting booked to go play somewhere and you're and you're as long as you're getting paid to play, they will help out with the cost of travel and and everything else to get you there. And then the only thing they ask in return is when they have events and ask you to come and play that you're willing to come play at their events. But they also will help with videos. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, they helped out with Shannon Book. He did a video called Dear Mom. It's an amazing, amazing song. Country? No, it's rock. Okay, excuse me. He was asked to write a song for Gold Star Moms. And so that was a song he wrote for their mom. And just everybody fell in love with it. So Operation Encore helped him do the video. And like you said, it's not cheap. I think his budget was like $7,400, $7,500. Yeah. And that's on the lower end of a budget. That's not, you know. They had a hard time finding somebody to do it for that price. Exactly. And that's not cheap either. No, it's not. But I'm going to link you up with them and you can apply. They even if they don't accept you as one of their artists that they take on, they still they come through. They listen. They partnered with me because of the radio station and they hear a new artist and guy from from Operation Encore. He'll reach out to me all the time. He's like, hey, do you got this artist's contact information? We'd like to talk to them. Wow. So they're actually actively listening and stuff. It's not people begging them to listen. They're actually doing it and going and being active with it. That's great. Every year, at least every year since I've been with them, they do a partnership with Zach Brown's Camp Southern Ground. Oh, cool. He does what's called Heroes Week. And so they'll come through and they'll be listening to the radio station. And that's what they'll usually hit me up for. Because they'll want those people that they liked, that they didn't necessarily have the budget to take on more people to go to that, to Zach Brown's Hero Week, where it's a celebration convention is what it really is. Zach Brown's a big deal. He is. And like I said, they partnered with him for several years and they're an amazing organization. Sounds like it. They're just small. And like you said, all the stuff in the music industry is extremely – just to have a song recorded is not cheap. So that is the only thing that hurts them is the budget to be able to take on more artists. But they do a lot of good stuff. So I'll link you up. Anyways, kind of squirreled off the road for a minute there, but it's like a comedian. Exactly. So let's talk a little bit about the genre that you're in. What brought you to that kind of music? um there was an uh a producer by the name of d extreme he was a breakbeat dj and he produced his own um music as well he didn't just spin other people's tracks he made his own rhythm beats and productions and a friend of mine brett labar that knew that I sang because I sing in cover bands um and he had brought I guess he was looking for a female vocalist to do couple songs and he introduced me and then he showed him some of clips of me singing live and He was like a perfect pitch. You know, she looks great. Sounds great. Let's do it and Sorry, I'm having the allergies today so we just I got to his place and and he gave me this track and said I if you could write to this, write something to that and let me know how you do and when you're ready. And I took it to him and he just off the bat, he was like, all right, let's do it, let's record it. And this was 2014, it was called Feel My Love. And so he was basically the first producer to take me to the studio and bring me out. you know, to the open. Cause I had my own little tunes that I recorded myself, like on my own little eight track before and stuff, but I had never had anybody finally like come out with a final product. Like I had a couple other people that I would, and this happens all the time and still happens. I'll write something. I'll go to the studio. I'll do the vocals. I'll record it. And it just sits on a desktop like nobody ever, they don't finish their end or they get busy with other stuff. They get sidebarred and then they just never finish it. Usually it's not anything personal. It just kind of gets forgotten about or whatever. So finally, this was somebody that Took me to the next to the next level and then we did we released it and he had people remix it And I just and just ended up falling into that genre after that so people that knew knew me from that song Would want to work with me and they were in that genre as well So it just kind of I kind of got stuck there, but I can do any genre. So I actually um via the same type of music, electronica. I am doing a Christian song, my first Christian song. I'm very excited about that. But it is as well, it's going to be like an electronica as well. But I do want to do something else. Before, I'm going to backtrack. Before I did in 2014 do that electronica song, I did release a song that was like a bluesy type of song. But it's under my previous last name cast story, not Santana. So a lot of people don't know that song. It's called Talk to Me. And it was a bluesy, soulful type of song. I actually have it. You have the bluesy one? The Talk to Me bluesy 2012? Yeah. I don't know if it's the same one because it's got another person with it and it's, it is under your current name. Oh, those are the remixes. I had remixes to it. Yep. And I love it. So I got a song queued up that I'm going to play here in a little bit so everybody can hear just because I love the music. Like you said, your voice is amazing. Thank you. I think it's just a matter of now waiting for the world to catch up because once you do, you're going to be on fire. Thank you. Yeah. I mean, I've been trying to get that attention out there and slowly, you know, it takes a lot of time. How old was Rodney Dangerfield before he finally got recognized? He was an old man already. Yeah. You know, and, you know, everybody says, and I hear it all the time, right? Everybody says that now is the best time because you got all the internet and everything, you know, comedians and song singers and everything are getting picked up from YouTube. But what they don't realize is how much more competition that brought in. It sure did. Yeah. I mean, yeah. back then, not anybody could just do it. You had to be willing to move and travel and, and live in your car and gig and, and get to know people. And now you don't do any of that. It's just hopefully on top of that, not just, not just opening more doors, but it also lowered the income value because now people could just rip it off of the internet. So even major mainstream artists are like hurting and not, not enjoying that aspect either. Well, and it's super tough. I mean, that was one of the reasons. And I didn't honestly know how bad it was until I opened up this radio station. I went and got the licensing through BMI and through ASCAP. So we pay our royalties. But it is insane how low these royalties are. You know, there's no way anybody can live off of it. I don't care how much your song. If you're not getting gigs and getting up on a stage in today's world, you are going to starve to death because the days of CDs are gone. The days of streaming and big platforms like Apple and Spotify, there's loopholes. They play a lot of songs that they don't even pay royalties for. Right. And so it's really unfortunate. It really is because just because, I mean, I think last quarter, I think our three radio stations played just under 20,000 songs. And I think my royalties was like $6. It was, it's crazy. And you're 24 hours. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, Some of them, obviously, some artists, the royalties are a little bit higher. I'm sure you play Jelly Roll or something like that right now where how big he is and how in demand he is. You're probably going to pay more royalties than you will because there is some catches like that. But for the most part, just like you said, man, it is tough. Nobody's getting rich from streaming, that's for sure. No, and I'm definitely – not doing this to try to be rich, but I would like to be at least a little bit successful. I mean, I know that it's not going to make me rich by far. And the only way for me to do that is just to keep releasing, keep releasing, keep releasing, you know? Yeah, and getting your name known and getting up on stages. I've seen some pictures of you up on stage. I thought it was amazing. It looked like really good turnout for crowds, too. Oh, yeah. I've had some pretty big ones. When I used to sing with Switch, we opened up for Loverboy for the WMMO concert series. That was probably one of the larger crowds I got to do. That was a lot of fun. The bigger the crowd, the more energy I give. Oh, yeah, absolutely. If I'm not mistaken, isn't this the same genre that Deadmau5 is in, right? Have you heard of him? Deadmau5? Yeah. I think, yeah, I recognize that name, but there's also different types of electronic music. There's breakbeat and there's drum and bass and there's techno and there's house. So I don't know which one he is. Yeah, I think he's more techno, maybe house. I heard him on – and it was just kind of cool, his story about how his name came from. I guess he passed out with a mouse mask on. Oh, the one that he wears, right? Yeah, yep. Same one. But yeah, I just thought it was interesting. And like I said, you're the first on our station. So that's really cool. I bet that threw everybody off when, you know, they heard that. Wait a minute. This is way not what I'm used to on this radio station. That's great. I'm going to stand out. And you did. So it's funny that you said that because we've got three projects, right? We have a podcasting program, an author program, and our radio station. Well, the guy that runs the podcasting program for us when your music played, he's like, dude, she is good. He said, that's my music. I love that kind of music. Awesome. He called me to tell me, I thought that was pretty cool. Oh, I love that. So you, it sounds like before you came in the military, you was, you was into the music heavy and, and you enjoyed it, but it wasn't the same genre, was it? Well, cover bands was just, like I said, just covers. And when I was doing cover bands, I self-taught guitar. I just taught myself guitar. And I was writing my own little acoustic songs. But I never recorded any of those in the studio. Well, minus one, if you go to my SoundCloud page, there is one. But it wasn't recorded in the studio. A friend just helped me record it. It's called Breeze. That's the only one that you would hear on any of my webpages. That's 100% everything I wrote, the music, the melodies, and the lyrics. All the other things that you hear is somebody else produced the track, and then I wrote the lyrics, melody, and vocal concepts of all the harmonies and ideas. There's a couple songs where you hear like, echoes or overlays. I, I come up with those ideas typically not, not recently when the break beats, uh, producers and stuff, they'll do their own little sound effects. But in the very beginning, when I was doing it, I was telling them, I hear this, I went on doing this and I want you to put in, plug in this. And so I wouldn't actually try to get, get a little more control that way too. Uh, when I do my future songs, try to tell them, Hey, I kind of hear this. to get a little bit more of my creative input besides just writing the song and melody and lyrics. I want to try to help produce the vocal part as well. Man, I think it would be super challenging to, to put all that together. You know, I've had all sorts of artists on my show and, and I always ask the same question, you know, this particular song, where did it come from? So the song that I'm going to play for everybody is called tap out. Um, where did where did this song come from where where was the uh idea for that song tap out yeah that's tap out by katharina santana here how about we go and play it and we'll see uh yeah that's funny I don't recognize that title that's what the one that you sent to me that's what it was called yeah we'll go and play it okay let me share the screen now I can't see, it's so little. Is it playing? I don't hear anything. Let me do it this way. Unless I wrote the wrong name or something. That's funny. There we go. Now this will work this time. Oh, talk to me. That's a typo. It's called talk to me. All right, I'll change it then. I think that's great. When you put it down on me cool yeah that's that's um this song let me see if I can okay yep yep yeah I'll get the title changed that man that that song singing that song has got to be tough with how fast the music's going and man I've been I've been out of breath at about the minute 10. Well, you know, that's actually the second remix of the original Talk to Me, which is that one I mentioned, the 2012 one, and it's super slow and bluesy. It's a very much slower song, and that one, that's, again, that's the second remix. I gave you both remixes, though. The first, so that one was with DJ Self, and the first one is, the first remix is with Wes Smith, and his is really awesome, too. But what I did when I did re-record it was I did do it at a faster beat per minute, but it wasn't hard. For me, it's simple. I know the song. I wrote it. So all I had to do was just sing it a little bit faster. That way, when they remixed it, they wouldn't have to increase the tempo, and then I sound like a mouse. So I just sang it a little bit faster. And then that way, when they did their production, They could still speed it up a little and I not sound mousy. But had I not done that, I would have sounded like Minnie Mouse or something because they would have tried to speed it up too much. Because the original one is really slow. It's like, talk to me, singing with me now. Yeah, it's really slow. And you can tell there's blues in it. So I didn't know that until you said it. But after re-listening to it, yeah, there is a blues to that. So where did the song come from? Where did the motivation for writing it come from? It's so funny that I usually try to not focus any songs on myself. So I do like more storytelling. You know, it's, I'll get like a melody in my head and then I'll just think of like a sentence like, okay, what does it sound like I could be saying? And then I was like, oh, talk to me. And so I said, okay, well, I just kind of just go off of it. It's funny. I just, I don't, it's not too often that unless somebody wants me to write particular something like the, uh, not too long ago, I might be doing a collaboration and the person said, well, this is going to be about a kid that bounces from foster homes to foster home. And then he just gave me a scenario. So now I have to like, think about that and then write those words. Other than that, when I do my own songs, I'm just kind of like making up a story. I don't have anything in particular about myself. Whatever the song makes me feel like, you know, just get that little muse and it just comes out. That's, you know, a lot of people say, you know, that music is a self-expression and I don't believe that it has to be a self-expression of specifically events in people's lives. Just like you said, it could be moods, it could be likes, it could be a lot of things. It doesn't have to be. when I say personal meaning a personal tragedy or a personal role, you know, but it's still pieces of you that are coming out in that song because the topics that you like, they're, they're stories that you like, you know, maybe more like stuff that I wish would happen or something, you know, maybe subconsciously or something. I don't know. There's only been one or two songs that haven't been released that I, that I've wrote like about a topic about myself. but they haven't been released. Well, I'm going to ask the tough question now. So the tough question is, is, is if there was one stage that you could be on, where, where would you want to perform your, your bucket list place to perform? You know, it'd be awesome to perform at, you know, while the ball was dropping on New Year's Eve in New York times square. Yeah. That's like the place. I mean, I would say I made it if I got to do that. We need to make that happen because that is awesome that you are the perfect artist for that. I mean, everybody out there is upbeat, having a great time, loving life. And man, the music you provide them. And if you could overdose on happiness that night. Yeah. That's good. That's what I want with a feel good songs. You know, I do want to write another ballad. But, you know, because I like I said, I have a lot of songs that are in the arsenal that I'm actually bringing, trying to bring back into light and handing them over to people that I'm like, listen, this never came out. And I own my lyrics and I own my melody to it. but I don't own the production. So I just need somebody to listen to what I wrote and come up with their own production so I can maybe release it. Cause I, you know, I really liked what I came up with and it's a shame that it never made, made light. So I'm trying to get a few older things that have been sitting back and that I want to introduce to the world. So we'll see. And there's one that's a ballad. That's just beautiful. A little tear jerker of a ballad that I just, I really hope that I can bring out to the light. We'll find out. I hope so. And anything that you come out with that's new, make sure we get it. I sure will. Yeah, absolutely. The world needs to hear it. And that's my goal with this. One of the things that me and Operation Encore is trying to make happen is we want what's called the VMAs, the Veteran Music Awards. Oh, cool. Oh, wow. And the idea is to have veterans that serve that made it big in the industry, you know, like your George Straits and people that served or are extremely patriotic like Kid Rock and stuff like that. We want them to host it. And these independent bands, you know, we would select 10 or 12 bands a year and have it be a fundraiser to go towards another veteran organization. I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but, you know, you've heard of the Miss America pageant, right? Of course, yeah. There is a actually Miss Veteran pageant that runs simultaneously with that. Oh, wow. It's done exactly the same as the Miss America pageant. The only difference is you had to be a veteran or active. Or National Guard or Reserves, either one. And you have to win your state. And then they go to Atlanta for the main pageant. And instead of how like Miss America, each of the people have their own charities that they are running for. Well, this one, all the funds go to their charity, which is helping homeless female veterans that have kids. Oh, that's a great cause. Yeah. And it's all of them coming together. It's veterans getting back with each other and having camaraderie and being back around each other. And their website is super, super cool. I would love to have whoever created their website on my website. on my show because uh it's got all these beautiful women in this uh these gowns right except they're covered in dirt right because they're from the military were they yep so yeah super awesome and I i had a few uh um people that were running this year on on the show and that's how I learned about it but I think that's a super cool idea and so I want to do this yeah you know, and I don't want to make it genre specific. I don't want to do like the country music awards. I just want it to be the veteran music awards. And yeah, that's a great idea. You know, and that's what I always tell everybody, man, you know, it's hard trying to make it super, super fame when you serve 20 years, 18 years in the military, because you're so far behind the powerball. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And even if you would have had a name before that, you would have fallen off because you have to keep on it. Keep on it. It's tough, you know, between traveling, writing songs and then doing it yourself. Independent people, man, they they really have it hard because they're doing all of it. They're wearing multiple, multiple hats. They're producing themselves. They're doing their social media. They're writing their songs. They're doing it all. Yeah. So they don't have to pay people to do it. That's one way to really. Yeah. But you're working hard. 90 hours a week for yourself and not making money most of the time. Yeah, it's super tough. And so, you know, that's what I tell everybody, you know, if we, if we can get this to come together and there's a few sponsors that are interested in being a part of it, but if it's something that we can get done and, and I know it's going to happen before I die, um, at the end of the day, you know, somebody may not be the next Garth Brooks, but they, they will be for that day. You know, they'll be on the red carpet. The press will be there. Everybody's going to know about them. It's going to be televised. And, uh, I think it, it'll be super cool. And it's just another way to say, Hey, we see you, we know what you're doing and you're, you're making a difference. And I think that's really cool. That's a beautiful idea. I love that. Um, I have, uh, I have some connections with where I had my, my, um, the veterans, they used to call it a retreat, but it's not for people with PTSD. Cause I, I do, I do have that. And I went to, it's a wellness, like a wellness retreat where you do, uh, you know, get together with other veterans, you get some counseling and you do other fun things and you get together for like a week and do that. And, um, they used to be called veterans alternative, but now they're called warrior wellness. And they're over here in Newport Ridge. Yeah, you've heard of them? I've heard of Warrior Wellness. I didn't know the other name. So if ever you wanted to try to – I know Travis that works there and Patty and all those people. So if you wanted me to reach out to any of them for you, I'd be happy to. We'll bring them on the show and help get them out there and get everybody to know about them. Absolutely. They would love that. That's exactly what this is about. There's no one army here. It's going to take a group of people to fix a lot of the problems. Networking and you come across somebody that needs a specific thing, you can say, I don't do that, but I know somebody that does. That's what we need. Got to find support because it's just so hard to to get it these days when you go with the typical route, because things are so messed up. You have to kind of like word of mouth and know where to go. And then things like your show, this is how you do it. Word of mouth. And I know this person and scratch each other's backs. Because unfortunately you go into like the official route, it either takes too long or you just never get seen. Yeah. Things like that. So. A lot of nonprofit organizations are the way to really get help. Yeah, it is. It'll be the mom and pop. I don't talk bad about the VA because they've done some good stuff for me too. Right. They're so overwhelmed. There's no system in the world that can fix all the problems. And I've had a lot of guests that come on that want to build tiny homes. We're going to build this tiny home community and we're going to fix veteran homelessness. And I said, okay, that's great. But are you also going to fix the fact that they don't have any documentation? Are you going to fix the mental illnesses that they have? What about the detoxing and substance abuse problems that they have? What about the... There's so much. I mean, there's just no way. You would literally have to have a city, a little town built... to have all the people living there that provides all these other resources. It's, it is. And that's why, that's why nobody has been able to successfully tackle it because of what it's going to cost to do it. Yeah. I mean, they got to at least start somewhere though. Like at least pick one of those lists of things that you said, and at least try that and maybe just branch off from there. Once you get one of them rolling, you know, get to one issue at a time. Cause it is a lot of things like you said, but at least tackle it. one other one besides just trying to run them through the system just, and I'm not getting anything done. Yeah. There's, there's a lot of really cool organizations that have started building the tiny homes. I can't think of the name of the show that was, that came on and they're doing great things. They, their main mission is, is something I never even thought about. They help, older veterans that are getting in their senior years that don't have the money to do the upkeep on their house. And they're now too old for themselves. So they partner with a bunch of companies and they'll put on 50 roofs a year. They'll put on decks, ramps for wheelchairs, and they go around the United States. They're not just one place. They're all over the United States and they'll do these things. Well, they got certified to build tiny homes. So now they're building tiny homes and donating them to homeless shelters to put in places. There's one in Kansas City. I think it's called Veteran Village or something like that. It's a community full of tiny homes for just ex-military and veterans that are homeless. you know that's amazing there is a lot of stuff that's coming it's just a it's just a really big problem and uh I think uh you know if nothing else you're getting people inside a shelter they're not freezing to death and and stuff like that so it's a problem that I just I don't understand how it even became a problem because of all people that shouldn't be homeless the people that served your country should be the first ones not To be homeless, it just doesn't make any sense. Well, I think people became desensified. I mean, every person on a corner holds a sign that says, homeless, veteran, God bless, please help. And people got to the point where they've seen that every time. They didn't know who really was a veteran and who wasn't. That's true. Yeah, unfortunately, people just, man, they're rats. A lot of good mom and pop organizations are doing some great things. And I think that's an amazing thing. I love the veteran community. And especially on my side, because I get to celebrate the wins. You know, I don't have to go through all the crying and everything because I'm on the side of people coming out of the other side. And they're writing books and singing songs and trying to become successful. musicians or authors or even the next Joe Rogan, you know, so I get to be a part of that. And, and it's great for my mental health is as well as it is for theirs. So. Oh, yeah. Helping people is a great way to have to, to help yourself, helping others. It's amazing to do that because it makes you, like you said, build your own confidence too, because you're doing something for somebody else, you know, it's helping somebody else. There's nothing greater than that. Yeah. I love it. So do you got any upcoming events, any place that the world should know and make sure that they're there? Right now I'm on a hiatus from performing. So I'm only focusing on releasing songs until my son gets a little bit more older and more independent. And I'll have, I'll be able to, you know, have more me time because I'm just single mom. Then I'll think about maybe doing again, some acoustic or, you know, picking up, maybe try to get into a court cause corporate shows, corporate bands, that's where the good money's at. If, unless you're of course famous. So, I mean, you get paid really good money for some of these shows and I'm in a right state to do it because you know, Tampa and Orlando, all the different places, Disney universal, like those places I used to play when I was in cover bands, that's where the money's at. Yeah. You know, the people that go for retirement or they do their, high school reunions or just whatever corporate functions they go to Florida. Yeah. I'm here. You are right. What's your, what's your son's name? Ezra. Ezra. Shout out to Ezra. Yeah. He's asleep. I make sure I put them down early. I'm like, all right, you're going to sleep at seven 30 today. How old is he? He's five. Yeah, just turned five in February. Five going on ten already, already trying to answer back and everything. Oh, goodness. It goes so fast. But kindergarten starts next year then, right? Yeah, I know. I was like in tears. It's almost like he's already going to his dorm room. Like I'm sitting in a kindergarten thing. Yeah, yeah. He's not a baby. That's the awesome part that you're getting to spend some time with him. And I guarantee you there'll be some music that comes out of it. Oh, for sure. He loves to sing. And he's so funny because he knows how to already maneuver phones. That's like the thing. Now these kids already know how to maneuver through phones without you even telling them how. and he finds my little he finds my songs and he loves them like the one that you played and you know he doesn't know the the words totally but he'll be like and then he knows the beginning to the other one and I go my name is katharina so he'll be like my name is katharina it's so cute he's like my biggest fan I love it Awesome. You know, I think all of us guys are, are, are mama, regardless of who you are. I, I, I know I, you know, he's big time going to be mama. Well, I'm gonna go and bring you forward. I'm gonna give you the opportunity to tell everybody where they can find your music, any websites, little ads, wherever, wherever you want them to go. And then I will make sure I include them in the description and, and everything else. So, um, you know, it's so easy to find me. All you really have to do is Google my first and last name, Katharina Santana, just like it's spelled down on the bottom there, Katharina Santana. And it'll, it'll on the top of that, uh, Google page, it'll have all of the links that like does a Spotify to the I heart. Um, I'm on reverb nation. I'm on sound cloud, uh, Amazon music you can get my music on there YouTube pretty much all The major channels that have music you'll find me on there Pandora plays my music but the easiest way really to get to my links is to Google my name and And it's so funny that I discovered that because I don't know if you've ever tried to Google yourself out of curiosity, but I did that and I realized, wow, they've just done all the work for me. They've got everything listed. They've got other things that I partake in in events like the Music Beats Cancer. They have that listed so you could read different articles and things like biography about me and different things that I have partaken of event-wise like charity events. or competitions. There's all kinds of little things, facts and, and, you know, stuff that you could read on Google. And it even has me listed as a public figure. I was just like, I'm there, but I'm not there. I'm a public figure without the, without the six digit income. You know, but that's what I tell everybody, man. We just got to fake it till we make it. That's what I do. You know? Yeah. Yeah. So just Google my name. It's that easy. Cause, uh, if I sat there and try to tell you all the links and you'd have to get a pen and paper, cause you know how they're weird. It's like Katharina underscore Santana, number one, capital K, you know? So, So luckily, Google has done all the work for me. And to make it even easier, like I said, we'll have all the links in all the descriptions so people can just click on them and check you out. I think I sent them to you. If not, I'll redo that, and then you can copy-paste, and then it'll show up. I think they were in your bio, the email you sent with your bio. Right. Good. Okay. Yep. Yeah. And everybody's going to be able to hear you on Veterans Voice Radio. And I am going to get our station fixed and I will resend you out sometimes that the music. Oh, great. And we will get we will get that fixed. I had no idea. That was. Yeah. Oh, you mean you'll do the top of the hour again for me? Yep. Oh, that would be great. We will make that right, because I did not know. that it was doing that. Yeah. A lot of people were missing out on some good songs besides mine. You know, I was, I'm also on the college underground FM radio station. And that's one that you'll find as well linked in the Google college underground radio and Glacier FM radio. I'm on those internet stations as well. They are playing a couple of my tunes. And just recently there was another one I'm trying to think. Oh, no, I had an article done on the song you played, Talk to Me, remix number two. They just did on rising artist music. They did a little, what do you call it, when they review it. And you'll see that a little listing there of the review of the song and a little biography about me as well. That's awesome. Yeah. See, everybody's getting in before the tickets and the interviews cost like $50,000. All right. On the ground floor. That's so funny. Well, I appreciate you coming on. Um, I love your music, and I already know because people have been telling me how much they love your music. Oh, thank you. We will get you out there and get the world to know what they're missing out on. Oh, thank you. And I really love that you let me get on the show. I appreciate it. I feel special. I appreciate you coming on. Nobody listens to the show for me. It's all the guests. So without you guys, this show wouldn't even exist. So I appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for taking care of the veterans. My honor. I love it. I do. It's one of the best things I do in my life. Are you a veteran as well? I didn't even get to ask. Oh. I retired in 2014. I was in the Army. Oh, wow. Okay. Well, thank you for your service also. I appreciate it. Well, I'm going to put you in the green room. If you don't mind holding on for a second, we'll get the exit video out there and I'll be with you for, and I'll get you some of that information I was talking about. Sounds good. All right. So I know if you haven't listened to her music yet, you better be clicking, heading over to Spotify, finding out somewhere because you're missing out. Her songs are amazing. And, you know, I don't know who does the, the productions behind it, but, but man, they're like great teams. So I want y'all to go check it out, you know, um, help support her by the music off of, uh, iTunes and, and, uh, Amazon, wherever you download music and, uh, check her out because, uh, man, I'm, I feel lucky that, that she was even willing to be on our show and to be on our radio station. So I want y'all to have a great day. Remember, Don't let the day kick your ass. Kick the day's ass.
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