Jaymes Buckman was told he couldn't sing. Now he fronts the band.

Jaymes Buckman fronts Hot Apollo, a band he describes as Tempest Rock — loud like thunder, sparkly like lightning. He started out as the kid whose friends told him they hated his voice and handed him a drum kit instead, so he built his own band where nobody could tell him not to sing, and got better through sheer stubbornness and repetition. Jo and Jaymes get into where the name came from, what happens when you trust the wrong people in the music business, and why he'd rather be broke making his own songs than comfortable singing someone else's.Key Moments- "No, we hate your voice, but you have a drum kit" — the origin of a frontman- The Hot Apollo name comes from an Allen Ginsberg poem, and he's spiritually obligated to credit the guy who found it- Trusting the wrong people cost him about a third of his catalog on the major streamers- He watched his late father's sketch comedy show for the first time last year, and can't tell him how funny it wasThe TakeawayWork on your weaknesses, not just your strengths. He skipped anything he wasn't already good at as a kid — then started running anyway, and came first in the mile at sixteen.Guest LinksLook for Hot Apollo anywhere — Instagram, Facebook, X, Bluesky, TikTok, Spotify, Apple, SoundCloud, BandcampJo's crime mystery Scarlet Shadows, book one of the Scarlet Mysteries: https://amzn.to/4wJk4ccAs an Amazon Associate, Empty Hell earns from qualifying purchases. Buying through our links costs you nothing extra and helps keep the show running.Everything Empty Hell: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell