The Well of Music — Intentionally Blank Ep. 265

The Wells are back for another episode of Intentionally Blank! After last week's successful newlywed game, we explore deeper into Dan and Dawn's lives and her love of music. That and more on today's episode of Intentionally Blank!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Welcome back to the new and improved Intentionally Blank with 100% less Brandon and 100% more Don Wells. Hello. How are you? I'm doing pretty good. So great. I wish I could have you at work every day that I'm here.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

That would be fun.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

That would be great. So we want to talk about music because music is a huge part of your life.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

And so I want you to tell me about your little kidness. I always kind of have the little joke in my head of having no idea where Don came from. Because you grew up in like the country with country families. You know, your parents and your three brothers, none of them are go to a fancy orchestra kind of people at all, remotely. Yeah. And yet in the middle of this, and I love them all, they're wonderful people. Your mom in particular is one of my favorite people alive. But how did that family produce you? Is the question I always wonder about. And you're a lot like your mom, actually. You are so much like your mom. But in musical terms, like where did your love of music come from there?

SPEAKER_00 1:26

I remember when I was, I don't know, probably four or five. I had this little music box, and you would push it, push down a little circular button on top, and it would play. And so I would play that music, and then I would just dance around the room. And I would make up little routines and dance. And then my family has always sung. Even though they don't sing in front of people, we would sing along to music on car rides. Oh when country songs, I'm gonna guess no, like 60s music. Like Big Bobper, like I can't think like that's the one that I think of the most. Like a lot of yeah, a lot of 50s music, 50s and 60s.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

I definitely heard your mom sing Big Bobber. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

And so I had like those like three tapes memorized that we would play over and over for 12 hours on the way to Kansas City from Cheyenne.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

So and then what was the first instrument you learned? Oh and what sparked that?

SPEAKER_00 2:40

I started playing piano when I was seven. I just had a little keyboard, and I thought that was super cool because my older cousins played piano. And my mom took piano lessons when she was little, so I wanted to play like her. But then I didn't really practice, and so after just a couple months, my mom's like, no more lessons. But then when I was 10, no, nine, I was in an elementary school where they had this presentation of string instruments come from probably the junior high, maybe the high school. And they said, Hey, do you want to play a string instrument? Here they all are. And they showed us all the instruments and played them for us. And I'm like, that's so cool. I would love to play the cello.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

Are you a cellist? No.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Oh, because they also had us take a piece of paper and draw an outline of our hand and then write our name on it and then hand it to them. And then we got it back with them telling us which instrument we should play based on the size of our hand, which I think is the stupidest thing ever.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

I agree.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Yeah. So I loved like the resonance and like the warmth of the cello, but they said I should play the violin. So I'm like, okay. Heartbreaking.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

I'm a celloist.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

They did the same thing in my school, and a guy came with a whole bunch of instruments, and I was like, trombone looks awesome. I want to play trombone. And he looked at my hand and said, Your uh thumb and your pinky finger don't go far enough apart, you can't play trombone. And I was like, Well, then I'm not gonna play anything.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

And didn't you play trumpet?

SPEAKER_02 4:16

No.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

For a while?

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Uh I took piano lessons as a child. I took clarinet lessons for a couple of months. I hated it so much. I'm sorry. Uh but yeah, I just if that guy had said, sure, here's a trombone, let me teach you. Maybe I'd be a trombone player today. Maybe you would. Which means I would be a lunatic.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

I know a lot of really nice trombone players.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

What's the difference between a trombone player and a medium pizza?

SPEAKER_00 4:44

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

A pizza can feed a family. That's mean.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Okay. So I started playing violin when I was nine years old, and then I moved schools, and that school didn't have string instruments available until fifth grade. So I started in fourth grade at one school, and then I wasn't able to play violin at my next school. But I started piano like right before I turned 10. So then I was playing piano, and then the following year I was playing violin as well. So I was playing violin and piano for like all of well, the rest of elementary school and all of junior high and high school. And I started playing organ when I was like 14, 15.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

And then I started Were you self-taught on organ or did you have an organ teacher?

SPEAKER_00 5:40

I had an organ teacher for like three months. She taught me organ and I taught her daughter violin. That's cool. So yeah, I started teaching violin when I was like 12. Just to beginners.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

So when did you pick up harp?

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Oh, harp was ninth and tenth grade.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Harp was amazing. My orchestra teacher, Mrs. Wallace, because I played piano proficiently, she taught me harp lessons for free.

SPEAKER_04 6:10

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

In the mornings before school, like once a week. Because she just wanted more harpists in the world. And I'm like, yes. But then my junior year, she stopped teaching the harp lessons, and we had a new teacher come in. And I didn't exactly love the new teacher. And I was also super busy my junior year of high school. And that's also the year that I started choir. That was my junior year of high school. So I did choir my junior and senior years. And then I got a minor in music at BYU mostly through my orchestra from playing violin, but I also took organ lessons in college. And I've always been in like church choirs and community choirs. And I don't play violin a whole lot anymore, but I've just loved singing. I love singing for anything, for church, for community things. I was able to be a part of a musical about women in the Bible in 2022. And I had the part of Eve. A friend of mine wrote this musical, and I saw it on Facebook that she was holding auditions, and I'm like, I should do that. I just I love singing and I want to do something bigger than just a church choir. Well, and at that point I was also part of a community choir where I would have solos as well. But when I was the part of Eve in this musical, like all the other women in this production had degrees in music or had at least started a degree in music. And I'm like, I really want to be a better singer. I can hear the difference between my voice and their voices. And I I I want to be better. Also around that time, I was helping conduct a children's choir and I just wanted to be a better musician. Like doing a lot more things showed me where my weaknesses were. And I'm like, I need to fill in the gaps of my ability level. So I decided to go back to school.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Yeah. And I remember at the second Dragon Steel Nexus, before it was called Nexus, and we just called it Dragon Steel, Abby was there. My friend Abby, who listens to this show. Hello, Abby. Hi, Abby. Um, you were talking about how you wanted to go back to school.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

And she's like, Oh, let me let me tell you the order.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

So what happened was I actually wanted to be in the tabernacle choir. I still would like to be in the tabernacle choir. I just haven't auditioned yet.

SPEAKER_04 8:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

And I'm like, I need to take some voice lessons so that I can get into the tabernacle choir. And she's like, okay, so take some voice lessons. And I'm like, okay, well, I I think I heard about this one teacher. I think I have her on my phone somewhere. And Abby's like, well, look it up. I'm like, okay, okay. She's like, we're not doing anything right now. Like, okay. So I look on my phone, I'm like, oh yeah, there she is. She's like, call her right now. And I'm like, okay, I guess I'm calling her. So I called her right there in the middle of Dragon Steel. And I'm like, hi, I want to sign up for lessons. And so we scheduled a time like a week and a half later, and I started taking voice lessons. And a couple weeks after that, I felt inspired that I need to go back to school instead of auditioning for the Tabernacle Choir. And so that was what fall of 22. And I started school fall of 23.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Yeah. So and just finished junior year.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

You are both vocal performance and music theory.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

And in my head, that means you're earning two bachelor's degrees, but you keep insisting that that's not what it means.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Well, that's because my advisor says it is not two degrees. It is one degree with two emphases.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

Okay. That's a cop-out on the university's side.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Because when I went back to school, I already have a degree in English teaching from BYU. And so I didn't have to take any general education classes. So I'm like, I'm just here to learn. It's not really about the degree I'm getting, it's just the skills that I want to attain and how I want to better myself. So I knew I had to be there for four years because of how many of the voice lessons and classes I needed to take. So I'm like, well, I'll just fill the rest of my classes with things that I want to learn about music. And then my second semester in my music theory class, my teacher, Dr. Jones.

SPEAKER_03 11:00

No, there's no way the name's Dr. Jones. It's not like she wears a fedora.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Her name's Pam Jones, and she's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

There's no way she has the most common surname in music.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Anyway, she was like, Does anybody want to be a music theory major? There's a scholarship. And I'm like, what the heck is a music theory major? So I looked it up on the school's website. I'm like, oh my gosh, these are all the classes that I already want to take, with a couple more added in there, and then a final project. And sure, I want to do that. So I signed up a few weeks later and added another major. So so yeah, I'm doing music theory. So which makes you think I really know music theory well. And then I'm pretty good at it, except sometimes I just look at the notes and I'm like, I have no idea what those chords are and what they're doing. It takes me a long time to figure it out.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

But I really mean some chord pregunts, because she writes a lot of music. You'll play me some chords and be like, doesn't that sound weird? And then you'll play me the exact same chords as far as I can tell, and say, see, that sounds a million times better. And I'm like, I guess that's a music theory thing.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

I was actually wrong when I played that thing before.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

Do you imagine that you have a little Abby who sits on your shoulder and says, What are you waiting for? Just do it.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

I don't know. I'm just really grateful that she had me jumping.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Lit a fire.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Yeah. Well, and when I first was starting school, I mean, I hadn't been in school for more than 20 years. Like, it was a long time. And I had been a stay-at-home mom for a long, long time. And was my brain gonna work okay? Was I gonna be able to take care of my kids? I had no time for the things that I did do. How the heck am I gonna add school to that? And I just one foot in front of the other and hope we all live is kind of how it's been. But like the couple days before school started, I felt like I was standing at the top of a high dive looking down into the water, going and like, I'm gonna jump, I'm gonna jump. And then I jumped and it was okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

That's awesome. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

It was okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

I remember during the f your first year back at school again. So this would have been 23. We did a karaoke party, and you wanted to invite a bunch of your friends from the U. And then we got there and I realized, oh, all her friends are 20 years old. Which we at the time were 47. So that was it's it's very amusing to me that all your social peers are like little tiny babies.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

But they're awesome.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

But there's other adult, like I they're all adults, but like mature older students in your program as well.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

There are.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Yeah. So you've been in two operas so far? No, you've been in more than that. Because you were in Alice in Wonderland.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Mm-hmm. And then my man, my mic.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Oh, yeah, it is three. Because you were in uh Tenderland.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Well, 10 Labo M, and then we did the Tenderland. We also did a production of Die Flatermouse in English.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

See, I I'm not counting any of the ones where you're chorus. I know that yes, obviously you were in the person, but I'm thinking of the ones where you had like a big role.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

A big role.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

So you were the cook in Also in Wonderland, which is not a singing role.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

No.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

To be clear. It was all pantomime and trying to look as silly as possible on stage. And you did an incredible job.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Thanks.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

And then you were one of the moms in Tenderland or something?

SPEAKER_00 14:56

No. Were you like a you were a lady?

SPEAKER_02 14:58

You were a lady.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Like I okay, one of the moms in Tenderland.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

No, not the mother. Okay. But there's a community of people who I assume are all mothers.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Well, I was Mrs. Splinters.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Yes. In the Tenderlands.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

We can assume from context that you had children.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Probably. They just never came up.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

Yeah, so not the mother in the Tenderland.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

Because that's like a mezzo part.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Yeah. And it was a huge part.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Yeah. So. And then you were again a mother in Hansel and Gretel.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Yes. Yep. I was the mother, and I got to yell at my kids and tell them to go pick strawberries and don't come back until their baskets are full.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Yeah. Awesome. It was fun because there was somebody else cast in that role.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Who was actually the mother in the Tenderlands?

SPEAKER_02 15:51

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

She was doing both roles.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

She was doing both. Yeah. And then they called you and were like, Do you think that you have the experience to sing a song about how your kids never work and your house is a mess and you are tired and exhausted and don't know what to do? And you're like, Yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Exactly how the phone call is. But yes.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

And your good for nothing husband is out selling brooms or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Yeah, it was cool because the other person who was cast at the beginning of the year had a conflict come up and she wasn't able to do the role. And so I got a phone call from our opera director a few days after classes got out in December. So it was like December 12th or something. And he offered me the role of the mother in Hansel and Gretel. And I was like, yes, I've already been listening to the music because I was planning on learning it like as a cover, even though I wasn't officially the cover, because I had kind of asked, can I be the cover? And I hadn't exactly talked to him about that yet. Recently, I talked to him about it at the beginning of the year, and he's like, Yeah, that should be okay if it's okay with your teacher. And I had talked to my teacher, but then I never like got back with followed up with either one of them. So I had been wanting to send him an email, and then he calls me and offers me the role, and I'm like, Yes. So I learned the role in three weeks, which is fast.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

And cover is opera speak for understudy. Yes. Do other do other like forms of theater say cover instead of understudy? Or is it just opera who has to be special?

SPEAKER_00 17:32

I don't know because I just do opera. So I don't know what the other forms of theater say.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

Okay.

unknown 17:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

So does first violin in an orchestra have another violin ready to step in if they like get sick or get hit by a bus or something? And is that called a cover or an understudy?

SPEAKER_03 17:51

I think second violin just takes that position, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:54

No, second violin's a completely different part.

SPEAKER_03 17:55

Oh man, it shows how much I know.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Um, there's like the no, you probably just how can you tell if a stage is level? I know this.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

There's drills coming out of one, both sides of the viola player's mouths.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Yes. I have lots of musician jokes.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

How many first violins does it take to screw in a light bulb?

SPEAKER_00 18:24

One and the whole world revolves around them.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Exactly. There you go. That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

Well, how many second violins does it take to screw in a light bulb?

SPEAKER_02 18:34

How many? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

None. They can't go that high.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

That's awesome. Yeah. Brilliant.

SPEAKER_03 18:45

So I'm curious, Don, from what I've just heard, have you considered composing music, like doing scores or anything like that?

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Yes. I actually started composition classes last fall. So I've taken two composition classes, and my first semester, I wrote a Christmas hymn with original words and music. And then I did an SATB arrangement of it. Wow. And then I had a quartet sing it for my concert, the end of semester concert, last December. So that was kind of cool. It's called Behold a Child Is Born.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

No Christmas hymn. I think it was called Behold a Child Is Born.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Did I forget what my thing was called? And then I also wrote that semester a what do you call it?

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Aria? Or no? No. This is before the Aria.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

No. So I also wrote a flute solo based on a painting. And then I kind of I didn't revise it much. And then that was performed this past semester in the spring. And last fall I also wrote an art song with the words of High Waving Heather by Emily Bronte.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

And my accompaniment was maybe my favorite poem of all time.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Which is why I wrote it because I'm like, Dan, I have to write an art song. Give me a poem. And so you told me that. So I wrote it. I'm like, sure, let's just do this. And the accompaniment was crap. And so I rewrote the accompaniment this second semester because I signed up to do this art song project. And so I actually had to have a good accompaniment. And so I spent my spring break writing that. Wow. And I'm I love that piece now. And my friend Porter, who does watch this show, hey Porter. Hi Porter. He sang it for me at this concert that we had for donors. And so that was fun. And then I also wrote this. So okay. Let me back up a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 20:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

I want to do my music theory project on the operas of Rossini. And I want to write an aria in the style of Rossini based on studying how Rossini uses music theory and his patterns and different things. And I want to write an aria that I will then sing at my senior recital next year. And so this past year, there was a call for new composers, student composers to write opera scenes. And I'm like, well, what if I just write an aria? What if I just try now before I've actually done all the research? So I actually have listened to, I did some research last summer and listened to a lot of Rossini. And I'm like, this thing and this thing he does. And yeah. So then I decided to write an aria. And so I did. And then that was performed this spring. And the aria is from what I would like to write a full opera of A Night of Black or Darkness, one of Dan's books. So it's gonna be great because it's this historical vampire. Comedy that we need more of that in operas.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

So A Night of Black or Darkness is one of the very first books that I wrote. It might in fact be the second book that I ever wrote. I think it is. But it was not very good yet. I tried to sell it. I sent it to Moshe, who is Brandon's editor and for a long time was my editor, but it was the first thing I sent him and it wasn't ready yet. And he's like, it's not ready yet. And so after I had written and published several books, I went back and fixed Black or Darkness because it's one of my favorites. It is a historical vampire comedy farce. And I made it more farcical. Last year, Dawn uh helped turn it into a physical book. It's been available in audio for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Since 2011.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

Yeah, we couldn't get anyone. My agent loves it as much as I do. And at every publishing house in the country, there was one editor who loved it, and everyone else who was like, this is really weird. And so we could never sell a print version of it anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Except for in Germany.

SPEAKER_02 23:11

Except for Germany where it is parking. Anyway, last year we turned it into a physical book. Dawn did all the book production herself because she's incredible, taught herself in design. And then we did not have even a fraction as many copies at Nexus as we needed. So this year at Nexus, we're gonna have way more. We're gonna have a ton. Yeah. We're gonna be an all black or darkness booth and nothing else. Yeah. Um so yeah, that is, I think, the one book of mine that you and I have worked together on more than any of the others because it's been around so long, and because I turned it into a stage play with my sister several years ago, and then you're turning it into an opera.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Yeah. So I wrote this past semester, I wrote the aria that Mary Shelley sings about her great novel and why she's digging up bodies in a graveyard.

SPEAKER_03 24:11

For the audience, totally not for me. What is an aria?

SPEAKER_00 24:14

Oh, sorry. An aria is a solo in an opera.

SPEAKER_03 24:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

That is like separate from well, okay, it depends on when it was written. Sometimes it blends in with other things in more recent operas, but it used to be like you would have the retitative section and then where it's less melodic and like people are talking to each other. And then the aria is where one person just sings by themselves about this one thing, even if they're singing to somebody else that's listening.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

So and operas they have to call their understudies covers, they have to call their solos arias.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

They have to be the most special flower in the whole pot.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

They are special. It's very special. And there's also duets and trios like this summer. I'm actually going to Germany in just a couple weeks. And I'm doing an opera program.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

Oh. Gonna be gone all of July.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Yeah. And I'm doing a trio from Street Scene, the gossip trio, where these women are gossiping about this woman who's having an affair. And then I'm also gonna be in a trio. Is Street Scene Langston Hughes? Yeah. Yeah. And Kurt Weil. And The Tales of Hoffman. I'm in a trio of that as well. I haven't learned that music yet, though. I still have a lot of music to learn in the next couple of weeks. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

That's awesome. And then you are the lead in one of the operas next year at the U.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

Yes. Oh in April, I was cast as Madame Flora. Well, for next April, I was cast as Madame Flora in the medium. So I will be the medium who uh holds fake seances, but then actually has a supernatural experience and freaks out and goes crazy.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

Yeah. So it is the most Dan Wells role in an opera ever. The old lady who's a crook and then has a real supernatural. She is a little bit of a little bit of a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Yeah, she is.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

She and then she has a real supernatural experience and goes insane and kills a guy. Whoa. And like all this stuff. Spoilers. For this Benjamin Britton opera that's like, how old? Is it not Britain?

SPEAKER_00 26:44

It is not Britain.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

Oh, who is it? I thought it was Britain.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

No. No, it's not.

SPEAKER_02 26:49

It's okay. Never mind. Yeah, Dan, come on. Know your opera's better.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

Like, it doesn't even sound like Britain, anyway. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

No, I got confused. It's because you said it was by the same guy who did a mall and the night visitors. Yeah. And I always think that that's Britain, even though it's not. No. Because Britain did a different one.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

What's the different one that he did? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

I actually don't know Britain very well.

SPEAKER_02 27:14

The thing is because I haven't sung any. When I was in high school, I went to the Cathedral of the Madeline, downtown Salt Lake, two different times to see little opera things. One of them was a mall and the night visitors, and the other one was a Benjamin Britton. And so I conflate them for that reason.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:30

Well, I feel like we gotta ask. Don, do you have a favorite opera?

SPEAKER_00 27:36

La Nozza de Figro was really funny. We went and saw that. Sorry, my nose is itchy.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

Yeah, the Capitol Theater production of that a few years ago was fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Yeah. I also like Die Zauberflöte, the magic flute by Mozart. I haven't seen it in a long time. But when I was younger, I like would listen to the music all the time. And when I was taking German classes in college, I like read the entire script. So as part of my German class. Okay. So that one I like a lot.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

What's your least favorite opera? And is it the same as my least favorite opera?

SPEAKER_00 28:19

I know what your least favorite opera is.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

What is it?

SPEAKER_00 28:22

Because it's the shining.

SPEAKER_02 28:24

The shining went to go see. I was so excited to see an opera of the shining. Little did I know that I was in for the worst three hours of my life. That was one of the dumbest pieces of art ever vomited out.

SPEAKER_00 28:39

So you didn't ask us that in the goodness.

SPEAKER_02 28:42

Yeah, I apparently should have asked that for the newlyweds. The thing is, the thing is that modern academic music is kind of like the fashion industry in that the movers and the shakers are making stuff that is so weird and insular, no normal person would ever actually wear it. But it is done to inspire more level-headed creators to create great and wonderful things. And so a lot of modern opera is designed by and solely for other modern opera composers. And it is inaccessible garbage for everybody else.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

The thing is, a lot of modern music has a lot more math involved than tonal progressions.

SPEAKER_02 29:35

Well, and sometimes that works really well. We've listened to some like Tenderland by What's his bucket. That was very modern, and I think it worked.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

That's because it was pentatonic, which is better on the ears.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

Whereas The Shining was just ah a lot of 12.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

Not how it was made at all.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

Threw them together.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

There were a lot of patterns.

SPEAKER_02 30:02

No, they did a lot of patterns and stuff, but I went to hear an opera, not a sudoku.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

Okay, that's true.

SPEAKER_02 30:10

It yeah. The thing is, all of the background music, like the accompaniment was gorgeous. But the songs that the non-melodies that they sang. Oh my word.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

That's also because are more willing to listen to dissonance in instrumental music than we are in vocal music.

SPEAKER_03 30:36

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

It's my opinion. Which it could be. Because you listen to like the music in Psycho, or like that's the beginning of a a lot of things that led to the shining. Yeah. And if someone was singing that, you'd be like, this is horrible. But if it's just instruments, then that's okay.

SPEAKER_03 31:00

Right. Do you have a favorite score? I'm now curious. Like movie score? Yeah. Because I don't know. This you do a lot of music theory, so I was curious if you've done much with scores and such.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

No, not really. Like, I have a hard time with favorite anything. Right. Whatever I'm doing right now is my favorite thing.

SPEAKER_03 31:18

Gotcha. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 31:19

That's true. That's what I do. I'm very just focused on right now.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

And then But you do have a very clear favorite food. Yeah, damn. Nachos.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

Oh, yes. Yes. My favorite food is nachos. Yeah. Like the big nachos supreme.

unknown 31:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:37

Yeah. I always know that if I don't know what to get her, I can get her nachos and she will be very happy.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 31:45

And she'll go into a restaurant and be so confused and frustrated because she doesn't know what to order, and then she'll find out that they make nachos. She's like, oh, well that then. That's that's exactly what I want.

SPEAKER_00 31:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

It's the best.

unknown 31:57

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

That's true.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Well, hooray. So tell us what's next. And I asked this question, knowing full well that you don't know. You're gonna graduate next spring with, in my opinion, two bachelor's degrees to add to your pre-existing one. And then you're gonna take a year off. And then is it back to grad school? Is it become a famous composer? Is it join the tab choir? Um is it all of the above at the same time while replacing our fence and floors?

SPEAKER_00 32:30

Yes. No, um see that's why I don't want to paint anymore. I don't want to have to move all our furniture again, which is why I'm like, we just have to paint now. Well, I will graduate next spring in May of 27, and then I plan to audition for the Tabernacle Choir in the summer and take a year off of school, take private composition lessons in my time off, and then apply for grad school in the following February, and then get a master's degree in composition. And I also really want to study conducting because I really want to be a better conductor. So maybe if I can have like a side well, I know for doctoral students they have to have I don't know what it's called, a sub study area.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

Oh, like an area of focus.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Like, no, like this is my area of focus, and this is my secondary study thing. If I my area of focus is composition, my secondary minor, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

So you multi-class?

SPEAKER_00 33:36

I guess. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

I got that joke. That was plenty dirty enough to get that joke. Actually, no.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

Now I know what you're saying.

SPEAKER_02 33:45

Yeah, I own 603 board games. Dawn's played like three of them.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

I've played a lot. I've played a lot of them. I've played Everdell. You've played Everdell? I won the first time we played Everdell.

SPEAKER_02 33:57

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

Yeah. I've played Everdell more than once. When we went on three times.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Alaska Cruise, Dawn is the only one that would play games with me. Dawn and my mom.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

I love Splend.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

Splendor's fun.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

That's a fun game.

SPEAKER_02 34:09

Seven Wonders.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

Mm-hmm. Everdell, Splendor, Seven Wonders. There's the three.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

No.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

I've name another one.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

I've played Carcassonne.

SPEAKER_02 34:20

Oh, okay. Fine.

SPEAKER_00 34:21

Yeah. I've played. I have played what's the Galaxy one. Well, I've played House on the Hill. Uh Betrayal at House on the Hill.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

Have you played Galactica?

SPEAKER_00 34:32

Galactica. That's one.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

Were you a silent?

SPEAKER_00 34:36

Probably. I hate lying. I don't like games where I have to pretend to be something I'm not.

SPEAKER_02 34:42

Yeah, that's why you don't do role-playing games with you.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

Yeah. Okay. I played.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

One of our dates before after we were engaged, before we were married.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

No, it was before we were engaged. It was over Christmas break. Yes. Okay. And that's when you knew, yep, she's the one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

I did a Star Wars RPG with a bunch of high school friends.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

And I played like an Amazon woman.

SPEAKER_02 35:04

You were a bounty hunter.

SPEAKER_00 35:05

Yeah. And I was like, I'm starving. We've been playing since 11, and it's like three o'clock, and we haven't had lunch. And can we just win this game now? Anyway, so I won and we needed to go get food.

SPEAKER_02 35:18

So it was great. The angry Mandalorian.

SPEAKER_00 35:23

And then the next time I played a role-playing game with you was when I was pregnant with our second child. And our friend was running the game for us, and I didn't know what to do or how it worked. And so I just kept playing Yahtzee with myself. Well, it wasn't my turn. And I'm like, I don't know what to say next. So anyway.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

But different strokes for different folks. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

I've also played History of the World.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

You've played History of the World with me. Yeah. Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Several times. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

And we used to play back before we had any kids. Yeah. The golden days.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

We just were like where we just kept it set up.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

Yeah, we would. Because it took us like three. Yeah, it's such a fast game when you know how to play it. But our first game took us like seven hours over the course of three nights. Yeah. It was nonsense.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

Yeah, it was crazy.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

But anyway, anyway. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

So fun times.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

So you're wonderful. You know who played that seven-hour game of history of the world with us?

SPEAKER_00 36:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 36:34

Ben.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

What?

SPEAKER_02 36:36

It was Ben.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

It was Brian and Haley.

SPEAKER_02 36:39

Oh, they played it with us after we already knew how to play. Ben played the first one.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

Brian and Haley played with us first.

SPEAKER_02 36:45

Really?

SPEAKER_00 36:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:46

Okay. Yeah. Brian Mark Taylor, who comes to Dragon Steel Nexus, he's an artist. He and his wife Haley were very good friends of ours. Yeah. When we were both newlywed couples and didn't know anybody. Yeah. I thought it was Ben. No. Man. Well, I can't say how's that Ben now? Because it wasn't him. So I'm gonna say, how's that, Brian and Haley?