Jareth Marlow: Pommel Horse vs. Power Ballad

Heather Lovelady interviews Jareth Marlow, exploring his musical journey from a young age influenced by family and sports. They discuss the importance of voice lessons, the impact of different musical genres, and the transition from gymnastics to music. Jareth shares his college experience studying music, the significance of developing relative pitch, and the joy of creativity in songwriting.

https://jarethmarlowmusic.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Welcome, welcome to Master Muse Jareth Marlowe. I am so excited. I've been listening to your album Uh In the Ground that came out in October. It is so good.

unknown 0:20

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

You must be the most proud of this work and of yourself, hopefully. It's incredible. It's so good. Thank you. How are you feeling today?

SPEAKER_04 0:36

Pretty good. We got this the storm in Nashville. So I just moved to Nashville last week. Last one one week ago today. Okay. And both of my roommates are they're gone. They they like went elsewhere to to weather the storm last night here.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

So they've left you there a little gallon of water, a gallon of milk, and a loaf of bread.

SPEAKER_04 0:59

Yes, exactly. But at least I didn't have to have any other ears on my voice lesson when I was screaming.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

So you just came out of a voice lesson as well. Do you think that you'll ever get to the point where you're like, I think I'm good now?

SPEAKER_04 1:14

Well, I actually just started voice lessons. Okay. Um like two months ago. Um before I had had voice lessons like in college and stuff, but it was like classical training. And um I really didn't learn anything. I don't want to say that because if my say that.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

Whatever. Teacher, person, we're very sorry. That's just not what he wants to do, and it's not applicable to what he's doing right now. It's fine.

SPEAKER_04 1:44

But yeah, I I um I'm from Cleveland, Ohio, and I was back home. And one of my best friends, Logan, he joined the band that I used to play in. Okay. Um, and and I went to go see them. And like he, I we're both great singers. I think that like he's incredible, I'm incredible. But there's some things that he can do that just like blow me out of the water, like just high-range singing, like Journey style, or like um like Kansas carry on my wayward song, son. And like hearing him sing these songs that were so high and so powerful, like with such ease. I was like, I need to get like voice lessons. And so I've been working on that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

I love that. Okay, well, what we're gonna do is this is a very conversational interview. I want to understand what brought you to music. And I know you've done more than one thing. This is another interview with a former athlete or current athlete, however, you would like to categorize yourself. Um, I think these disciplines go hand in hand somehow, and I don't know the science behind it, but it blows me away. So let's first talk about your relationship with music. What is your first memory of either having music in the house, in the car, singing, parents? Like what was happening when you were a kid that introduced you to music?

SPEAKER_04 3:05

I I have four siblings, and where are you in the mix? I am second oldest. Okay. I have a twin sister, though. I'm just barely older than her. I have an older sister, and then it's me and my twin sister, and then my younger brother and his twin sister.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

So there's two sets of twins back to back?

SPEAKER_04 3:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Oh my god, you're poor party.

SPEAKER_04 3:26

Well, I guess it's better than five pregnancies, you know.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Uh sure, you could say that. You've never been pregnant. Um I'm assuming three is better than five, right? Like, no, there's two children in there, and there's two children to contend with at a time. And one newborn is a lot. I mean, yes, down the road, you're like, I only had to be pregnant times.

SPEAKER_04 3:47

But that's at least what I've heard from my mom.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

Okay, well, she was never pregnant five times, so maybe she could have. It's a kind soul to say that because she because it is double the trouble for sure. It's a lot.

SPEAKER_03 3:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

I can only imagine two newborns at the same time.

unknown 4:01

Back, back.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

I would have cried. But I'm sure she didn't. I'm sure she was super excited. Okay. So big household and a lot of stuff going on.

SPEAKER_04 4:09

Yeah, and we all played classical piano. So we had this nice upright brown piano in our living room. And my parents were like, While you live in this house, you will play piano. So okay, so who played piano, mom or dad? Neither. Like my mom played a little bit, but not like she didn't, she doesn't know how to play.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Okay, so this was just her dream to have children that could just play your songs on the piano?

SPEAKER_04 4:34

I think so. She just wanted us to. I mean, it's it's a great discipline to develop at like a young age, I would say, like learning how to practice something and and uh like problem solving, dexterity. Like it's it's I think it's good for anyone to learn piano. And as someone who I went, I ended up studying music in college, like I I would never have traded my piano training for anything else. Like it it really is so foundational to understanding music theory and and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

So I would so what other than classical piano that you were taking, was it classical piano?

SPEAKER_04 5:10

Yeah, it was classical piano.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Where was there other music in the house? I mean, I don't know how much room you have when you have five children playing the piano. It's like next half hour increment goes to Jareth. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 5:22

Seriously, it was like we were like fighting to practice, but no one wanted to practice unless somebody was already sitting down, you know.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

That's my turn. I said I wanted to do it at 2 30.

SPEAKER_04 5:32

Exactly. Um, and our poor piano teacher, like we would all come in, five of us, and like go one at a time for a half hour. It's two and a half hours, folks, who can't laugh. That's a lot of time. Shout out to Sister Susan and Cindy McAdams. They taught us. Bless their heart.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

Bless their heart. Um, I'm sure they loved it. I'm sure they loved it. I I would imagine being a piano teacher, although somewhat frustrating, has got to bring you joy, especially when they grow up and become musicians. And you're like, Oh, that's my Jareth.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

I love him. He's wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Yeah. What was the other music that was happening in the house, though? I mean, surely you guys had some resistance to the classical and wanted to listen to like I don't know what.

SPEAKER_04 6:21

Honestly, we would we would listen to like Christian contemporary music, okay, pretty much only in the house. Okay, that's and um and uh like I I I don't remember what age it started, but like I would be like seven, and my mom would have her friends over and like make me sing for them. Like there is a song by Cutlass called I think I think it's that's what faith can do. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 6:47

It's like I've seen dreams that move the mountains, hope that doesn't ever end, even when the sky is falling.

SPEAKER_04 6:58

It's like a really good song, but but I she I would like sing that, and Mark Schultz, he is a Christian music artist.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

I grew up with Sandy Patty, Michael Card, Twilight Paris, um, and then my rebellious days, some DC talk, some take things.

SPEAKER_04 7:17

Yeah. I and then it wasn't till like high school I wanted to like I wanted to listen to other stuff. Chance the rapper dropped a uh coloring book, which was like Christian, and I was like, Mom, it's Christian, it's fine, I can listen to it. Um but yeah, I definitely had my my rebellious face was like I was listening to Christian rap and like Lecrae, and uh I think Mantel Jordan released a song called Shake Heaven. Okay, he had some like not Christian song that was like super famous. I don't remember what it was called. It's one of those, like it's one of those like you would know it for sure. Hold on, let me.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Are we both looking at that?

unknown 7:56

Let's see.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

Um This is how we do it.

SPEAKER_05 8:00

Oh, there you go.

SPEAKER_04 8:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:02

This is how we do it.

SPEAKER_04 8:04

Yeah, and then he released one like we're gonna shake heaven, gonna shake heaven. And like that was my first because I was trying to listen to like other stuff, and my parents were like, No, and they put me back on the straight and narrow.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

And then I remember my sister came to me one time and she was like, I think you need to get rid of your Cheryl Crow cassette. I've been convicted, we shouldn't be listening to that kind of music. I was like, girl, you can be convicted all you want. I'm listening to some Cheryl Crowe. Okay, that Jesus did not tell me that he told you that. So you listen to Jesus. That's like telling me that I can't watch Shania Twain because I think she's too sexy because my dad thinks she's too sexy. I have no problem with her sexiness.

SPEAKER_04 8:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

So I was I I had a lot of pushback.

SPEAKER_04 8:45

Yeah. Yeah. And then yeah, I think that's when I started like I started like end of high school, once I had my own car and could play music in the car, listening to like hip hop, like chance and Kendrick and um J. Cole and stuff, and my parents hated it. And then right before college, well, I gotta I'm ahead of myself, but I started listening to like Charlie Pooth and Lau and like these like singer, songwriter, producers.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

We saw Lauv uh at Louie Tomlinson's Away from Home Festival. I obviously know some of his songs. Yeah, I have never I've never been to a rave or I don't know. I've never been to any places where there's somebody dropping the beat. Okay, like yeah, yeah. I don't have that experience in my life. So we're there at this festival, and this kid comes out, Lauv, Lauv, Lauf? Lauv, I say Lauv. Oh, yeah, and he comes out and he has um oh, let me see if I can find it. Because I had to put it on my liked list, it does, it does it no justice whatsoever because it's not so loud that it's hurting you. Paranoid. Paranoid is the song. And anyway, it came out, and that has a and it comes down and it and then it it shakes your head. Yeah, it's like behind it's in your it's inside of your chest, and you're like, uh oh, what's oh, and I was like, I looked at my friends and I was like, this is the most amazing feeling ever. Like, this is no wonder there's a whole bunch of people jumping up and down screaming at the top of their lungs on some kind of drugs with lights going, and like, this is amazing. I mean, I could do this with other drugs, but the lights and the and the the beat drop is definitely amazing.

SPEAKER_04 10:28

Yeah. It's uh it draws people in for sure. Right. I was yeah, I I wonder if I know that song.

SPEAKER_02 10:37

Here, I'll play, I'll play a little bit of it. Hopefully, when we get in trouble, I'll cut it out if I have to.

SPEAKER_05 10:44

Smile when you're sleeping.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Yeah, yes. Killed scre screaming.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

Yeah, screaming. It was insane. I was like, this is so I was like, maybe I really did. Being growing up in a Christian household is beautiful, um and also depending on the family, very restrictive. And there's some things that I I didn't think I was missing out on at all. And I don't know. I I could have done it without doing drugs.

SPEAKER_04 11:27

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

I could I would have said no. I was really good at saying no, but I said no to everything, and I didn't do any of I didn't do any parties in high school, and I I I didn't do any, I didn't drink, I I didn't do anything. Yeah, same here. I you know, I had a boyfriend. That was the worst that I did. Um I didn't know. Did you find it restrictive outside of the music?

SPEAKER_04 11:54

Outside of the music, I don't think so. Yeah. I was like, I was kind of right there with like, I don't want to do those things. Like, like, and and I didn't find out till later that like my friends had been, and I just wasn't invited. And so like I think it's like you come back from your first year of college, yeah, and and then and then you are invited because you're because you're an adult now. And I I remember being at my buddy's house, and they're going through like photo albums, like, oh my gosh, remember when I drank this whole handle of Tito's? And I'm like, no, I don't remember that. I don't remember. I was not there. I but then I'm you because it hurts for a second, and then I'm like, it's good I wasn't there because I would have freaked out, like I wouldn't have been able to handle that. So they knew you, they were like, Yeah, it's not ready yet.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

You'll be able to come into the full before we know it and make your own decisions, and you gotta learn to make your own decisions. I I think sometimes it's it's a hard place to be when every decision is made for you because they know better, and then you don't, you know, I think a lot of people make your own, then it's time to make your own decisions, and you're like, What do I do? Like, I don't know what to do. Do I call mom and be like, listen, this thing is happening, and she's standing here in front of me, and I'm like, I don't know what, you know, and your mom's like, I don't want to talk about this. You're like, Oh, who do I call? You know, yeah. That it creates some some um awkward stuff. Okay, let's let's rewind just a tad.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

And go back to you in addition to the classical piano, you also were a gymnast.

SPEAKER_04 13:34

Yes. Okay, what made you that was chosen for you at two? That was chosen for me at two, yes. Okay, and then I chose it for myself at how old are you in like third grade? Seven?

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Seven or eight, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:50

Seven or eight. Yeah, in third grade, I was I was wrestling and I was playing baseball and I was um doing gymnastics and soccer. Holy and I like I didn't like soccer, wasn't any good. Like, that's the age where like there's ten kids in like a 10 square foot area just kicking. Correct. And I would just like stand back and like wait for the ball to like shoot out over there because I'm like, I'm not gonna get in there.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

Yeah, what you guys are doing is ridiculous. What is this game that you're playing? This is dumb. The ball comes out, I'm I'm gonna go get it.

SPEAKER_04 14:25

Yeah, and I was like, I thought it was like a great defensive player, and then it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

I love the if you think back on your eight or nine-year-old self, and this applies to me as well, but I have an eight and nine-year-old right now. They are very confident of themselves. The abilities that they feel that they have that are excellent are many. Yeah. And it is a it's a glorious time to be alive. If we could, if we could harness it and hold on to it, because by the time you get to 18 and 19, you're like, I'm not good at anything. I I don't know what I want to be. I don't know what it's like, it's so horrible. But eight or nine, you're like, I got it all figured out. Okay, so when third grade, you're trying all the things, all the sports, you're really good at gymnastics.

SPEAKER_04 15:09

Yeah, I I I don't know if I'd say that. I I was like loved it. I loved it so much. I hated wrestling. I was I was getting it handed to me on the mat. Okay. And my dad wrestled in college. So like he he he was never he never pushed it on me. Like he wanted me to do it.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

But they do it's like my son does baseball, his dad did baseball. Yeah. It's just like the I was like, I know something about this, I can contribute and remember how fun or how much I liked it. And it's like so cool when it works out, but like you don't want to go, oh, you have to, you know.

SPEAKER_04 15:48

Yeah, not your thing. I I remember like I would cry on the way to wrestling practice, and then like, and then I would have a blast when I was there. And then, but when I when I like told my mom I wanted to quit, I was crying because I thought my dad would be so disappointed in me. And then he he told me, he's like, No, like I'm proud of you no matter what you do. And like he was completely okay with me quitting wrestling, but he had put me in gymnastics so I would be a better wrestler. And we lived three minutes from the gym, so all five of us did gymnastics. Okay. Um, and it was like a a waterfall of quitting. Like my twin, she quit, she played soccer, my younger sister quit, did synchronized swimming, and then my brother and my older sister quit, and then my older sister came back, but I did it all the way through high school.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Um and what did you love about gymnastics? Oh man. Favorite event. Is that what they're called?

SPEAKER_04 16:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah. My favorite event was probably Palmel Horse. It was the one I was best at.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:50

Um like we would that's like where you're like spinning.

SPEAKER_02 16:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:54

And they call each one of those a circle. Like, and so when you're younger, you have a mushroom. It's literally built like a little mushroom, and you practice on there because it's easier than the horse. Right. And like we would, I was like a level four or five, and we would practice like getting one circle and then two circles and working up. And it got to the point where we would play games against the coach where he picks a number and we have to each take a turn and see if we can beat that number. Yeah. And it got to the point where the game wasn't like beat the number anymore, it was like beat Jareth. So like I would go and do like 70, and then each kid would go, and then they would try and like it would like be seven kids, and they would try add up all their scores and beat mine. Wow. So I I loved mushroom, I loved Palmer Horse. I was just like, I think it was my ADHD, like I had one in my house, and every time I walked past it, I would just go do circles. Like it was like, oh look, I'm gonna do that. Like, so I got I got really good at that one just because it was so easy for me to access.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

So great. We the um the ADD thing and activities is is so necessary. My my nine-year-old, which I don't know that she has ADD, but she cannot be still. She in the womb, it was both arms and both legs at all times from the moment. She'll feel her, and she came out and she was the same way. Like, you know, even when you're feeding her, she just but and I was like, this kid is there. I have an exercise ball underneath my um island where she eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and she bounces on that forwards and backwards until we've now broken it. So I now have to get a new one, but uh yeah, super, super helpful. Okay, so I I mean, what do you think? Because I like I said, I've talked to tennis players, ice skaters, all different kinds of people who did a sport all through their childhood, get to adulthood, and either it's either A, I don't want to go pro, I can't go pro or I'm not interested, and then they switch to music. What do you think the correlation is? Or is there a correlation to you?

SPEAKER_04 19:15

I don't know. I I always loved music, but more of my time was gymnastics. So, like, had I not done gymnastics, I probably would be like much more virtuostic on piano or whatever. Um, but I was like divided, and then like I played viola from fourth grade to twelfth grade in orchestra. I don't have time for all of this.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

I don't even know. I don't know. All I think about is a parents. Like, I have two little ones right now. We're in basketball, and my son is starting his season of baseball because I think he's on a travel ball team. I'm not 100% sure on that. Dad does all the logistics, but like there's always something going on. A practice, a game. And I'm like, yeah, I don't want to be. I have two grown children as well. So like I've raised two already. I'm like, I can't, I want to do this part-time. You know, like fortunately, a game got canceled today. I had to cancel an interview two weeks ago. I was like, I can't miss it. It's our first game. I can't, but um I don't it's it's like parents just going hither and yon to every little event. We if you had children in the future, do would you do it? I think so. Okay, what's the benefit? What what's what like I don't know, like music and sport?

SPEAKER_04 20:43

I think I would definitely I would try not to push music, but like I would try and make it like a way to connect with them if they if they wanted to, I guess. Um I think well, my parents were both school teachers, so it's it is like the perfect job for parenting because you're done when they're done. And and but they did like their their three to ten was devoted to us, and like because of the overlap with like a bunch of us in gymnastics, like it made it more doable. But right, I didn't even think about that till you just said it. Like, it's actually insane what they like.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

It was their whole lives, their whole lives was running you guys around to do all these extracurricular activities, and I I like there's a part of it that I think that's super great and makes super well-rounded children. They grow up. I mean, you don't know that your parents are sacrificing their entire lives for you for 20 years.

SPEAKER_04 21:40

Um, but then when the kids are gone, like yeah, well, my mom just she just started line dancing. Like we moved out, she retired, and she line dances like every night. She does not drink one lick of alcohol, but she goes to the bar every night and line dances for four hours.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

I love her.

SPEAKER_04 22:00

And she's like, I did this when I was 25. And then she's like, and I didn't line dance for 20 years or 23 years. While you got and now like she picked right back up where she started. Now she's teaching line dance classes and stuff like that. She's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

Okay, so she's fine.

SPEAKER_04 22:19

Yeah. Okay. What about your dad? He uh he does whatever she wants to do with with her, and uh he paints houses, like he's a painter as well. Um they'll go on missions, trips, and stuff, but yeah, they like they just picked up right where they left off with the things that they loved.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

And yeah, okay, so this is a success story for sure, obviously. Can say nothing bad about this. This is this is genius and smart. The line dancing. Oh, I love that. The rediscovering back of passion is just like the piano thing for me was I had it when I was a kid, and then I didn't have a piano for a while, and then somebody gave me a piano that I could use, but then I got married and they didn't want me to have it. Then I somebody else gave me a piano like five years into my marriage, and then I started playing again and started writing again, and then I took another break, you know, like so I've had these big breaks, and now coming back to it. It's like when I first started playing, I was like, I I don't think I could play Marietta Little Lamb without some practice. My God, it's so much. But I love it. And this year I'm dedicating myself to learning how to better, I don't know what the word flourish, maybe. I don't know, like licks on the piano. What do you call them? Texture. I would say texturing like chords and stuff. Okay, yeah, thank you. Because I'm gonna have to say this to somebody. I'm gonna try to see what I can figure out online because I really have enough information that like I don't want somebody dumbing it down too much for me, and I'm gonna get aggravated and I'm gonna be like, I know that. I know that, yeah. Um, but embellishing, maybe too. Yes, embellishing and and in different styles is the other thing that I want to do. Like I wanna I wanna it can't be that difficult. Except for practicing.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

Just the practicing. Like once you show it to me, I can do anything you show to me. Um and once you show it to me. It's this, and you kind of do this, this, this, and that, and be like, oh, okay. And then I'll just do it in all the keys and all the different chords, and yeah, then I should be able to do it, right? A lot of practice. Yeah. You see how easily I wreak that down. Yeah, yeah. I can. I will watch me. We will.

unknown 24:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

That's just how I do anything.

SPEAKER_04 24:49

I was like, the follow-up in a year, I'll be like, what's up?

SPEAKER_02 24:52

She's like, tell me what's happening. I'll be like, And you'll be like, You sound like um Mr. Batiste. Um my uh nephew-in-law was like, I mean, I think that would take 30 years. I was like, dude, I don't know what you're talking about. It'll take me no 30 years to figure out how to do whatever it is that I'm talking about that I can't even explain. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:11

Once you figure out what it is, it'll only be a good idea. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

Whatever I can explain to somebody. Okay, so when did you decide, okay, I should make music a priority? Because how far are you out of college?

SPEAKER_04 25:24

I'm 24. I'm two years out of college. My senior year of high school at my first competition of the year, I snapped my tibia and my fibula. So like the lower half of my leg just like like snapped. Like, you know, those basketball player where you're like, ah, it was like that, and like everyone was there, and they were like, oh my gosh, no. Um horrible. It was it was really it was really a bummer because I had put 15 years of my like I was 17. I put 15 years of my life into this sport, and I hadn't made like national qualifiers was like what I wanted to go to, and I hadn't made it, but the year before, like I had the scores I could have gone, but I did a musical that year, and we had like the tech rehearsal, like the week before the main show was on the day of regionals, which is where you qualify to nationals. So I had the scores, like I was good enough, but I couldn't go to the competition because I was in a musical. So then my senior year, I'm like this year, like I'm making it to nationals, and I was probably still good enough. Um, and then I snapped my leg, and it was like it was just like you know, you're you're it's like it's like when you crack your phone. It's like one second ago it wasn't cracked, and now I have to go get this fixed. Like it's like it's just an accident, you know? Right.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

And that you have an identity crisis breakdown after this.

SPEAKER_04 27:05

Yeah, I was, I mean, I was laying on the mat, like like screaming, like why? And it just felt like the world was over. Um, and then like one of the kids' moms, she like put it back into place, and that really hurt because I was like just laying there. But then um that's when I started like deciding to learn guitar. So like I was stuck on the couch for two months, and so I like would sit there like with my violin or like with my guitar and like learning Sean Mendez songs, like my first bar chord. And um did you teach yourself how to play guitar? Um from at that point mostly my my dad had taught me some chords, he he he could play like campfire guitar. Yeah, um, he taught me some when I was really young, and then I I just didn't stick with it. And then then I just yeah, I started learning, and um and then my leg, my leg healed. I actually competed at States on Palma Horse because as soon as I could take my boot off, I started training horse because you're you don't use your legs, you're just your legs are just flying in circles. So I started training and I actually won states that year on Palma Horse. Wow, and it was it was in like March or April, and I broke my leg in December. Um wow, so it was like a nice slow end to my career, yeah. But you know, it's not what I've wished, but looking back, I never might never have picked up guitar and and really tried to learn it. And guitar is like my primary instrument for writing songs, like and then I wrote right at the end of my senior year. I was like sitting there and I was like, dang, I love singing. I've like in my head, I've always believed like maybe I could be a singer someday, but I've never written a song. Like, what am I doing? Um, so I like sat down in my basement and for like two hours and wrote a song, and it was okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

And say all are in the beginning, because what do we know what we're doing?

SPEAKER_04 29:04

Yeah, but then I like showed it to one of my friends and he was like, This is the so good, man. You have to put it out. And I was like, it's not that good, but like I'll get better. And and then I went to Liberty in Virginia, Liberty University. Okay, and I was on a full, um, I was on a full academic scholarship there, full tuition.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 29:26

We're getting a whole package here, folks. So it was just like that gave me the confidence of like, all right, I'm not paying for this. Like, I'd I'd gone to Belmont, like to I I'd applied to Belmont, I'd applied to different schools, but like had I gone to Belmont, I would have been eighty, ninety thousand dollars in debt. So I was like, let me go here. I won't be I won't be draining my accounts, like not that I had anything in my accounts, but I won't be going into the negatives and I can study something that I'm passionate about. So I study music there.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

Okay, now for somebody who has great envy. I hate saying that I'm envious. But I am, I didn't go to college, but I did, but it was like two years of me like showing up occasionally, and then I kept dropping classes, and I hated it and never met anybody, and I thought I was gonna go to school to be a teacher. And turns out I should have been both. I probably should have been, maybe. I don't know what I am now. This is what I should have done. Somebody should have done me. But um, because there's some teaching that I do in this where I'm going, okay, now listen, everyone, listen to what Jareth is saying. Now you don't have to, you know, whatever it is. I got I feel my little teacher coming out. But um, I thought it was gonna be a teacher until I found out that they do homework all the time. Horrible. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 30:48

Yeah, my parents did that all the time too. I don't know how they did it. While you're gymnastic papers at the meets, yep, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

And they have to deal with parents of children that are brats. And you can't say your kid is a brat. And I don't like teaching your kid. You can't say that. You have to be like, well, Todd is not the worst kid ever, and Todd can probably learn. And if you help Todd at home, which I know you're not gonna do, because I think you hate Todd because Todd hates you. I mean, you can't say any of these things. And I thought, no, that's not gonna be for me because I've got to tell people I hate Todd. You know, I've got to be able to, you know, I cannot be in the mix. I'm not on the PTA. Don't ask me to sign. I'm not mm-mm, I'm not doing any of that stuff. I've like, if with these children that I have now, I don't even go to parent teacher conference. I'm like, they're in elementary school, I don't need to listen to the content. Unless they're not reading, I'm not doing it. So um I didn't get to go to college, and I like I said, I started playing piano when I was um like 11. And I would have loved to to know that I I didn't know what you would do if you went to school for music, other than be a music teacher. Like I thought that was like the option. Nobody was explaining what a producer was, what a recording engineer was, uh what you I don't know, all the different things that I could have done, music management, even. Um I I I mean, I love the idea of songwriting. Okay, so tell me about your experience in college studying music, outside of just like what we would imagine that you're gonna go to theory classes and you're gonna listen about music history. What surprised you about going to college studying music that you thought, oh, I didn't know that this is what I was gonna get out of it?

SPEAKER_04 32:39

Oh man, I love this question. I um I don't have perfect pitch, but I have like really good like pitch perception and memory. So like I know that's C if you played it. Like, so it's like I'm close. I just like I know because I know so much about like music, I know that it's not really perfect pitch what I have because I think I would feel things differently. But um, like I was in choir in high school and we learned about like reading sheet music, right? When you're looking at notes on a page, if it's a piano, it's like you see the note and you press the button. Right. If it's it's if if it's a saxophone, it's the same way. If it's a viola, you see the note and you put your finger where it goes. And you don't necessarily know what the note's gonna sound like until you hit the the button. Um, because that's the nature of reading sheet music. But with choir, when you're reading sheet music, you have to know what it's gonna sound like, or else you won't make the noise with your mouth. So um the way that you do that is through soulfish. So when you see a C, that's and you're in the key of C, that's do.

SPEAKER_05 33:56

So that's where we have do, Ré Mi Vasolatina.

SPEAKER_04 34:00

So if you see a C and then an E, the C is do and the E is Me.

unknown 34:06

Right.

SPEAKER_04 34:07

And so I have to then go in my head, well, do is gonna sound like this. So now an E is Do Re Me. Okay, that's what me sounds like. So I see a C and an E, and I go la la, and then I see an A, and I know that's la, la, so do mi la so mi fa re. That process from like seeing it on sheet music to hearing what it's would sound like in your head to making the sound is like very difficult. Um never thought about that.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

I was in choir all through high school. I never thought about the fact that yes, that's exactly what you have to do. And if if you there's like here's your starting note, and then anybody bada bada ba. Yeah, yeah. And then you know where your part is in that from that from that root, you know where your part is from there. Yeah, you find it. But then everybody goes blah, blah, blah, and then you just go this big giant chord happening that we know that we're starting on. I've never even thought of it that way.

SPEAKER_04 35:07

But without that ability, the only way to learn to learn singing is through listen and learn, wrote. Like, like hear it and copy it with without being able to read music in that way, right? You either listen to the piano, you play the notes if you're reading sheet music, or you listen to the song. So um, I as soon as I learned about that in high school, I was fascinated. I like because it changes your voice from a like repetition instrument to an instrument like like the piano, where you see the note and you play it. Um and then I got to college and we had ear training class, and they reverse the process. So you hear my song like you hear like can you hear this? It's kind of quiet. So when you hear like this chord, this is my one chord, bum, the bass note is A flat. And then you hear bum, there's the bass note. So you listen to the bass note, and you do the exact same thing where you go, here's do, and then I heard this chord, this is the next chord, the there's the bass note. What is that? Well, here was do, so do, re, mi, fa. Oh, so that's fa, which is the fourth scale degree. Right. So the first is A flat, two is B flat, three is C minor, four is um D flat. So it you can learn to do all of those things in your head. Where I I hear this, and I hear one, four, okay, we're in A flat. A flat, D flat, five, that's E flat. So you before you touch your, like once you know your starting pitch, if you know you're in A flat, unless you have perfect pitch. But if you don't have perfect pitch, they they call this training your relative pitch. Um, then I can hear a song, and someone says, Oh yeah, this song's in C. And I can hear the song, and before I ever touch the piano, I could write down all the chords. Assuming like it's not crazy difficult, like Stevie Wonder, like the more difficult, like there's levels to this, you know? But with any of my songs, right? There's a couple that I probably wouldn't have been able to do this with. Come and go is one of them. It's like the chords are wicked. Oh, I love it. I wrote it down. So haunting. But lyrics we'll talk about. But yeah, any song with like pretty typical chords, you can learn like with the melodies too, like hands together, like that's two, five, two, three. That's like B flat, E flat, B flat, C. Like you can train that, and I had no idea that was a thing until college, and it changed my whole life. And I'm that's why I'm so passionate about it. Because before, like, I had a good ear, I could figure things out by ear. That's what I do, yeah. But it changes it, like it changes everything because now I'm not figuring it out. I heard the chord and I know what it is. Like, that's so cool.

SPEAKER_07 38:09

I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_02 38:10

Okay, for those of you who are not gigging out with Jareth and I right now, it just means that you don't have to be Charlie Pooth in order to be able to sit down and play a song that you've heard for the first time. And that's what those people are doing, unless they have perfect pitch.

SPEAKER_03 38:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

Like the majority of those people, when they sit down, they're like, oh, listen to the song, and be like, uh, we're doing all this late night talking. And they're like, uh, okay, what's the rest of it? And they're like, what's that chord?

SPEAKER_04 38:48

What's that second chord? Right. What is it?

SPEAKER_02 38:50

Like they're picking it all up. And because they know how to play those chords and they've listened to the style of the song, they know how to, what did we say it was? Give it texture or embellish or whatever, whatever you want to call it. And that's all they do, they embellish the chords that they've already heard and therefore can play the song.

SPEAKER_03 39:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:12

And this is very exciting because for someone who like I didn't have anybody who could explain to me. I had my best friend took piano and she was like, Yeah. She was so really paying attention, really following the music. And if she started to play something that didn't sound quite right when she would play the chords because she'd like play in church and stuff, she couldn't find it. There was no finding it from there. But I would just be like, oh, whatever, for what sounded right or pretty to me. And I couldn't explain that to anybody. And I didn't have anybody around me to be like, girl, you're playing by ear. Why are you taking piano lessons like that?

SPEAKER_05 40:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

Because I was cheating. I, you know, she would Angry Birds?

SPEAKER_05 40:12

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 40:12

No, no, no. I was just playing something, but I she would do that and I would go, okay. Because I that that was the only way that I really could do it if it became too difficult. Once I got past a certain point, it was the only way that I could learn what she was showing me because I wasn't really reading the music. And so then I don't know that she ever realized that that's what I was doing. I don't know if I ever told her. And so when I got done with two years of piano, I was like, I can't really read music. I could. But I mean, we're talking about every good boy does fine reading music.

SPEAKER_03 40:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

I'd be like, okay, okay. Okay. And and it was it was so tedious. I could because I'm tenacious and willful, but it was so hard for me. And I don't so then I started playing just with chords. Um and that made it easier. But then there's still some some ways that I could arrange the chord to make it sound different that I don't I'm not there right now for sure. There was a time probably when I was close to that, but anyway.

SPEAKER_04 41:27

Different voicings of the chord.

SPEAKER_02 41:29

Yes, yes. And um, so it's like I have just enough knowledge because I took I did choir for four years, I did Allstate and and I was in a trio and a in an ensemble, whatever. I was I was decently good. I don't think that my vocal talent is anything special. Um, but I understand harmony really well and I have a really good ear. Um, but I want to develop that. So, and I saw an app that will mess around with this, this um helping you with your ear. And I thought, I wonder if I could train it to be better and then be able to hear things. And now you're saying that.

SPEAKER_04 42:10

Yeah. It's so, and and it's a question you'll hear in like musician circles, like, oh, do you have perfect pitch or relative pitch? Yes. And does everybody have one or the other?

SPEAKER_02 42:20

That can't be true.

SPEAKER_04 42:21

Well, so I think this is like my I've heard this, I don't know whose theory it is, but it's what I believe now. Is with relative pitch, almost everybody ever has it because those are the mechanisms through which we hear a voice and recognize that it's yours or mine or my mom's on the phone. Like that's relative pitch. Okay. Because you're hearing, and so if I go la la and say which one's higher, you would say la. Yeah, the second. So that ability right there is relative pitch.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

You're differentiating, like you're like it starts for people that are tone-deaf and who can't sing happy birthday properly, they could not tell the difference between the two?

SPEAKER_04 43:09

It's it would be very rare. It would be very like there's probably some people, but but most people like it's it's just that there's levels to it. So, like the the on the very base level, it'd be if I go ba ba and say which one's higher, you like that's the base level, it's like contour, right? Where are the notes in space, which one's higher, which one's lower? Then it would be intervals. So if I go ba ba, like that's a half step.

SPEAKER_00 43:35

Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba.

SPEAKER_04 43:40

And like all of those intervals, recognizing those. So first it's like that where they are, then it's like how far apart they are. Yeah, and then you can train like chords, and then you can train scale degrees and like go up from there. Um but yeah, it like everybody almost everyone has relative pitch. It's just like to what What degree have you trained it? Or maybe you're just maybe you haven't trained it, but you're just naturally very inept to it, which I think I was that way. Like when I got to college, probably just from all my background, and they said you like they said, like you can hear this and then say like as soon as they told me it was possible, like I was like, Oh, cool. Like and it wasn't like I was amazing, like I wasn't incredible from the start, but it was like I didn't start from zero. It was like they told me it was possible, and I was like, Oh, I'm here now, and then I worked my way from from there.

SPEAKER_02 44:33

Um, this is very exciting news for me. I don't know how the listeners are gonna feel about this portion of the interview, but I am over the moon. I want to jump up and down. Little Heather, 11-year-old Heather, just is she's racing around the room right now, squealing.

SPEAKER_04 44:46

Yeah, well, I I think this is under under portrayed. Like I learned piano for for from five to eighteen, never been told this. Like, sheet music is great for certain things, right?

SPEAKER_02 45:01

If you want to be a classical orchestra, classical pianist, like if you're gonna perform, if you're gonna perform classical music, yeah, it's it yes, and you've got to do it perfectly and you've got to practice all the things perfectly, but everything else any other kind of musician really doesn't use sheet music, like and it's not necessary, and and there's a style that people can have. Like, like when I talk about the way that John Batiste plays the piano, anybody that knows John Batiste in any way get has an idea of what I'm talking about, yeah. Because of where he's from, because of the way that he was trained. Yes, he was trained classical, but he was born in New Orleans, yeah, and and it has all this jazz influence that is attached to his style. So him playing uh the way changing the way he plays Beethoven is so incredibly cool, and that's what makes like a something that sounds really straight, you know, a bunch of major chords less interesting, yeah. And come and go. Elements of blues and and oranges, and then your song come and go, a little more interesting because it you go, oh, that sounds kind of and how do people describe it? That's a little haunting, or that sounds a little moody, or whatever. And it's because we've incorporated some elements like a minor chorus. Yeah. Anyway, so um, oh, that's so very exciting. Okay, I feel like you've helped spark the next thing from my brain because again, if I can hear it, I swear I can do it. Yeah, I just have to be able to because I can hear it in my head what I want to do. It's finding it on the piano and then practicing. I know I have to practice, yeah, but I'll practice something that's fun. Yeah, I won't practice anything that's important. I will practice something that's important. Not really. Yeah, I just know how to do them. I just I do it. I was like, oh, okay. This guy taught me how to how to do the little crossover so that you can run down all the keys. And I sat down and I was like, okay. Yeah. And I was like, oh, and then I did it for like hours. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04 47:10

I've emailed.

SPEAKER_02 47:12

And I was like, okay, I'm done with that.

unknown 47:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

Um, okay, that's amazing. What a great answer to that question. And something that I never thought. I thought like Charlie Pooth, the he's the person that I think of that has perfect pitch, and everybody's amazed at him. It's like, hello, Jared. He just did it. So he's apparently, I mean, who was Charlie Pooth? Whatever. We we call him Professor Prof Professor Pooth.

SPEAKER_04 47:38

Professor Pooth, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:39

Uh anyway, um, but I thought he was the only one. Not the only one, but yeah. But that idea that perfect pitch was like either you have it or you don't. I don't think that I knew that you could train yourself to do that. Okay, so you get into college and then you're thinking, fully I'm gonna become a musician, or what was the direction that you want to take with this degree?

SPEAKER_04 48:04

So, like, I applied as a computer science major. Like, I was like thinking about that, and then I got there and I switched to recording and engineering. I and and that was kind of like I didn't know the options, and I was like, even if my songwriting ends up being horrible and I can't be an artist or whatever, like I can still like be a producer, like I could still, you know, do sound somewhere. Like I thought I would pick that because I might have a little bit more job stability than if I went down an artist development route or or like classical voice or you know. Um and then my school had a degree called Interdisciplinary Studies, which is like mixing disciplines to do something new. So the point of it would be something like in biology, sometimes you use statistics, right? Like with punnant squares and you're and you're um thinking about like genetics and like the percentage chance of of certain genetics being passed on. Like that's statistics and then biology, two very separate disciplines coming together. So that's the point of interdisciplinary studies is to do something like that. But a lot of people used it when they like had a major for three years and still wanted to graduate, but didn't want to do that anymore. So, like I think did two years in the recording and engineering program, and then I switched to interdisciplinary studies, and my major was like two-thirds music and one-third computational sciences, which is like math, computer science. And I only picked that because I had so many credits from high school that transferred into that that it was like almost full. So I just I didn't want to do recording. It was like the classes were two and a half hours long once a week. So you miss one class and you just missed one tenth of everything you were supposed to learn, and you fall asleep in class because it's boring, or like I'm getting up to P like just so I can walk around. Like I just couldn't do it.

SPEAKER_02 50:14

Um and so I Do you think it's necessary to go to college to learn um to learn how to become a recording engineer? Not at all.

SPEAKER_04 50:25

I I'm not a recording engineer. I like I think I think over the next however many years, like being in a music city like Nashville and working with producers, I'll probably learn more. Yeah. Um, but my producer he's one of the best producers I know, and he switched out of their program because it's almost it's it's almost like computer science, like the speed at which technology is progressing, by the time they write it down in a textbook and print it out, like we moved on. It's yeah, it's like there's obviously still things that stick, right? But um, yeah, you definitely don't need to. I mean, some probably most of the produ like producers producing like hits probably didn't.

SPEAKER_02 51:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:14

But if you want to go to college and that's what you want to do, it just it just depends.

SPEAKER_02 51:22

Like, aren't I old enough now that I should be like, I don't care about your whatever requirement, your course. I want to just take this class. I just want to take this class. Stop being weird. Yeah, I'm a gatekeeper. What is going on? I hate the rules of of engage of of engagement and um I don't like rules. I'm not a big fan. Um, like that should be pretty obvious. But uh, and I've I'm interested in learning how to record music that I want to make and see if I can translate. Like I I watched uh Justin Bieber doing uh leading an orchestra, and he was like, And I'm like, yeah, that's exactly what I would tell you. Yeah, that yeah, and then I want and then and I want and then I want this other thing in the background, and then I'm give me a little uh and I've seen people explaining it that way, and then some little guy on a computer is like tappity tap, tap, tap, whatever, and brings this thing to life. And I'm like, this is crazy. I don't know if you know who Stromet is, he's a French artist. Um, here, let me, I'll play, you'll know this. I've heard the name for sure.

SPEAKER_05 52:34

He has um he make papa ute.

SPEAKER_04 52:40

Yeah, he did.

SPEAKER_02 52:42

Yeah. So the beginning of this song, um, the guys listen to it, and he do that, they do this part first. And then it was like, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. Anyway, he's having him do it, and he's explaining, and he sounds like a little duck when he was doing it. And it's just the two of them being, and I was like, this, this, yeah, put me in the middle of that. I want to understand how you hear what I say and translate that into something on this equipment, and then how do we distort? Like, I just want to play. I don't know how to get myself in this space in this room, but I mean, I maybe I'll come to Nashville, I don't know. But um, God, I just love it so much. Okay, so you leave school with a two-thirds, one-third degree. And were you already performing?

SPEAKER_04 53:39

Uh no, I I I think I had one song out once. Were you still writing?

unknown 53:47

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 53:48

Um, I I was I I wrote through college like very sporadically. I like I played way too much Minecraft. I played a healthy amount of volleyball, but also way too much, like, because volleyball is actually healthy, but I did play a lot of volleyball. Um and then I would write music every like every once in a while, and um and like make TikToks and stuff. But I graduated and I still had really bad stage fright. Um, not that to the point where I wouldn't do it, like I would still do it, but I would be shaking. And like, so my voice is like, uh like not vibrato, like it's something else, you know. And my sister, she came to one of my juries, she was like, What was that thing you were doing where you were like shaking your voice? I was like, that was my body shaking. Um but yeah, for some reason, like my school, like Liberty, there weren't a ton of performance opportunities, or maybe I didn't do a good job taking advantage of them. But like Liberty, if you were on the worship collective, you were like in this elite group of like everyone's friends with each other, and they're all really good, and they all sing in front of the whole school every week. And if you weren't in that, like then you weren't in that, like, and it it it's it's fine. I never auditioned um because I don't know, I don't know. I like I was up against people who had from age nine to eighteen led worship at their church every Sunday, and I never I never led worship at my church. I did it like one or two times. Um and my sister did a lot because she because like you need a guy with a guitar to lead worship, and I wasn't a guy that played the guitar yet, right? So my sister would sing harmonies, and she did every every week, and she's an incredible singer as well. Um but but yeah, I I was like, I don't think I could do this because you you can't be scared, you can't be uncomfortable, like you gotta be good morning, Liberty University. Let's stand up and give praise to the God who is there on the mountains, and like, you know what I mean? Like, and I I was like, I don't I can't do that. So such your personality type, um, yeah, and I just had no experience, so right, like it would have been like starting in front of 15,000 people. Like, I was like, I gotta start somewhere smaller. Um, but yeah, so I I I left college. I was like, I'm still terrified to perform. And so I like started doing open mics around Cleveland and like just building confidence performing.

SPEAKER_02 56:32

Um here's the question that I think a lot of people have when we talk about this. Because I think stage freight is a pretty, excuse me, pretty common thing. Yeah. Like a lot of people are going, This isn't this is terrifying. I feel like I'm standing up naked in front of somebody singing the song, and they're all gonna judge me, and they're gonna be like, he didn't sing that right, and he didn't do that part right. And I, what part is this? I don't even understand what's going on. And then they're gonna get off, and then while you're on the stage, they're gonna start throwing things at you, and then they're gonna drag you off by your feet, naked in the streets.

SPEAKER_04 57:02

And yeah, and then stone and feathers, yes, right, yes, right.

SPEAKER_02 57:07

It's never happened to anybody that I know of, but it's a it's a real fear, and so the question that I and I and I I get a similar answer, and it's perfectly fine to say the basic answer is like how do you get past the fight or flight of right before you start your first strum or first note, or the light comes on? How do you make yourself do it? Is it because you want to do it so badly that you go, this is the price that I'm gonna have to pay? Or are you what what's the internal dialogue with that?

SPEAKER_04 57:49

Yeah, I think for one, like performing music and playing music like by yourself in your home are like different skills. Like it's the same mechanisms happening, but like there is a skill to like calming your nervous system and like and doing it in front of people. It's it's different because now you're connecting with people when you're at home, you're connecting with yourself, right? Which is also great. Right. But um, so like no amount of like of scales in your house will really prepare you for being in front of people. And I still get nervous, like I it never goes away, and different contexts make me more nervous and and less. And I I don't know if I could point to it, but um I think you a you just have to do it. Like you, like the amount of time you practice at your home, you get better at playing at your home. The amount of time you're playing in front of people, you get better at playing in front of people. But I think it's almost like the same thing with me with my acrobatics. Like, it is so scary to do gymnastics, it's terrifying. And like, there's this thing, like I like I want to try that next trick that's a little bit harder. That's a little scarier, it's a little scarier, and it's like the same, and it's rewarding. Like doing hard things is so rewarding that I think that's what builds confidence.

SPEAKER_03 59:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:18

So doing hard things and getting through the hard thing, going, oh, well, damn.

SPEAKER_03 59:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:24

I guess I can.

SPEAKER_04 59:25

And sometimes you have a voice crack, and but the more you perform, but you didn't get tart and feathered. That's the thing. You didn't get tart and feathered.

SPEAKER_02 59:34

You're you're you're gonna get you're gonna have the voice crack, you're gonna forget a lyric, you're gonna mess up a chord, you're gonna sing the wrong words at the wrong time, and then somehow nobody dragged you off stage, beat you outside to a pulp, and left you in the street to die. Yeah, it just they did, they just moved on. They didn't even know. You're looking at them like, did you not just hear me mess that up? I totally just messed that up. Yeah. Louis Tomlinson talks about looking into the crowd and he goes, and sometimes I'm so hard of myself. He was saying in a most in this most recent interview, he was talking about like I had this constant dialogue going on in my head. Like, you know, when I start getting afraid of whatever the next song is or whatever part are we messing up, was like, don't be such a whatever, just push through. Come on, you can do this. And it's like you're running this whole thing in your head. And the fact of the matter is, he would look into the eyes of his audience, he goes, and they're just they're they're in it. They're so happy to be whether they're happy to be experiencing Louie Tomlinson or they're happy to be experiencing your music or just music, it's like, oh, we're just having an experience. You're not sitting down with a notepad marking me off two points for for messing up that court. Yeah. Whatever because I feel like music is such a different experience in that way, outside of, you know, like especially if you came out of a sports background where they are deducting points for that minor thing that they are looking for, specifically, like they're waiting low-key for you to mess up because they have they're judging you.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:15

But even they're like they're still rooting for you, but they are they are marking points off, but they they want you to get a good score. Like they're like, ah, dang it, he fell, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:25

I just I just I think that music is so much more forgiving because it is a community experience that we're we really want you to be good. Like, I'm just saying, I had listened to you, I knew you were good. It's why I it's why I I reached out to you. I was like, oh, this guy is really incredible, and everybody should know who he is. And I'm like, I want to know his story. And then I sit down and listen to this album that you put out in October, and I was like, oh my god, this is incredible. Like the fact that everybody does not know who you are and is not listening to this, I'm I feel sorry for them. It it's it's so beautiful. The guitar on red lights, the hauntingness of come and go. I love what you say in come and go. Was it not perfect as it was? I wish I could take back all of my love. Man, I have been in that situation for a very big relationship, going, what? I was such a waste. It's never a waste. Spoiler alert, it's never a waste, but it feels that way. And then and I there's people that are missing, guys. You are missing out. And if you do not go download this whole entire album and lose your mind, I can't talk to you anymore. Um, okay, I got off on another tangent uh somehow.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:48

Okay, I have one I have one addition with the with the performance. Like it's also a numbers game. Like, if you sing one song in front of people and you have a voice crack, you have now messed up on 100% of your performances. But then if you sing for a hundred hours in front of people, like and you've messed up on 10 of the songs out of a hundred hours, right? Like that's 99% of it was still awesome. So it's like, Yes, that's great. That's a quite great. Yeah, and even yeah, I mean, even one song, you you voice crack once in one song, 98% of the song was still good. So it's like, yeah, and then like I started doing three hour gigs. So like you you can't you can't be bummed about the one voice crack because you're just saying 50 songs for people.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:37

That's insane. Yeah, how do you maintain your voice for three hours? Um, what do you do to take care of your voice? This is a good question. I don't know that we've ever talked about it before. What do you do to take care of your voice?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:51

I drink a lot of water. That's like the biggest thing. Like lubrication, yeah, like more than a normal amount singers should drink. And then I mean that's literally tea a day is not probably gonna cut it. You could add three cups of tea to a lot of water for sure. Um and then like my like like that's why I got vocal lessons with that coach because I had the three-hour gig and then a three-hour gig tomorrow, and then a two-hour gig two days from then, and then three more three-hour gigs. Like, I mean, maybe not that much, but like there was a week where I probably had four or five gigs, and um I was like, How do I how do I keep being able to sing like this? Right. So, like one thing, training your voice to make things easier, like over time, everything will have a less of a load on your voice, less strain. But tons of water, like I have a steamer, I steam my voice, like warming up well before you sing. I have a nebulizer, it like applies saline solution to your vocal cords. Like, there's a lot of things. Um, but the biggest one is water, tea with honey, all the things you hear about. Yeah, um, I have these little things called Chris Martin uh from Coldplay has a a voice, a special voice oil.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:11

Yeah, like it's like a dropper, right? And I and I think Harry Stiles, he squirts something in his mouth halfway through the show. We don't know what it is, and I'm just dying. I'm like, who is not asking this question? What's the stuff you're squirting in your mouth, babe? What's in it? Eucalyptus, what? Honey? Ginger, what? Yeah, I'm dying to know. Okay, that's a yeah, I feel like we haven't talked about that before. And I feel like it's really important. Your voice is an instrument, it has to be maintained. There is a way, and I think some people who are really good singers go, I sing good enough. I don't need to. I said it in the beginning. I mean, what are you gonna take voice lessons for? Your voice is amazing so that you don't blow out your instrument by not putting it properly is the is the right answer. And I do know that, but I was just like For real, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:03

And also like, I mean a lot of the songs, it's like like they're difficult. They're really difficult for me to sing. Like haunt me. I I still hate singing it, and I want to love singing it. Yeah. And I know I'll love it once I can do it easily. So like it's it's a whole different process to do like um like uh cuz cuz cuz I know that you're all that I need. No, I won't forget you, and I hope that you haunt me, like that much, and then you start over and you do it again, and you start like recording process versus the whole song through and and wanting to make like because in the studio, if I go, cause I know oh, all right, go back, try again. Like in live performance, you gotta do the whole thing through. There's no cutting in, cutting out, and these songs I did a lot of cutting in and cutting out because that's just how the recording process goes.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:08

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:09

So that was another thing. I have this album, I want to be able to sing every song on it well, right? And I couldn't.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:15

So um I just I think those are the things that you don't think about when you hear somebody put out a body of work and you don't think about how they had to record it. Or that was like whoard um a song that uh go back to Louie because he's on my mind. Um he did a song called Bigger Than Me, his last album, and it's a real um and anthemic. Is that how you say that word?

SPEAKER_05 1:07:48

I would say anthemic, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:50

Yeah, and it's I mean it's really powerful, and it's like bigger than me, and it's like what and I thought, did you think about that before you did that? Like, no, he didn't think about that. He recorded it in 18 bits, and he goes, I don't know why I did it. I made this song so hard for myself. Why did I do that? And I was like, I don't know. You didn't try to sing the whole damn thing before you were like, I'm gonna sing this for a decade. That's hard. You're gonna sing it for a decade because we get out there and then we love that song, and that's the first you know, that's the first single on you know, Faith in the Future, and we want to hear that every time you come out and whatever the connection is for people, and then you're gonna sing it forever. I mean, is is um Haunt Me a song that you wish that you didn't put on the album because of how hard it is to sing, or are you still like, no, that was a good choice. I just have to be better.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:43

Yeah, um I haunt me. I'm I'm glad I put it out. I I do like the song. It wasn't my favorite, but like there's something like I connect with slow, sad songs way more than like powerful. Like, I love sad and slow music. So, like if it were all songs that I only loved, it would probably be all of that. But I have so many friends that were like, Oh, haunt me so there. There's a there's a group of people, I mean, there are different like different people like different things. There's lots of people that that if they can't dance to it, they don't want to listen. Right. So, like, and I've got so many friends that were like, This is your best song, and I don't think it's my best song. But if I know that there are people that will like it, and if I like it enough, um yeah, it has got to be so hard picking the songs, yeah. If I want to do less, that one, I like maybe I'll think that someday because I can't sing it. Like that one is in D flat, and it's like if oh, if I just want to do this, like it's it's so high, and I couldn't like I would not be able to get through it in live performance, and maybe someday I can. Or like if I how do you feel about red lights? Red lights is hard. Red lights is I've not played it at a show yet. Um, I've sang it like busking on the street, yeah. Um, and I can get through it, but it's it's really it's really hard. I was at a show. Well, the nice thing about red lights is it's Cape O too, so like I can always make the decision to just drop it down, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:18

Um, but the your your show and your cards. I'm breaking your heart. We're playing with fire to light up the dark. If we get too close, you'll bleed, but I won't, so maybe it's better to leave it alone.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:46

Oh yeah, I like someday I'll be able to sing that easier. I also I just did an hour of like we were doing um what carry on my wayward son. Like it was it was that like we were we were we were going through songs of like carry on my wayward son journey, um like and just picking the hardest phrases and then singing those. So my voice is so tired right now just from my my lesson, but still so incredible.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:21

I just loved it so much. Okay, well now we're getting we're getting too far because I've got a a list of seven questions. Okay, so how did you decide and when did you decide that you were gonna be um a solo artist and then end up you've you've released a lot of songs, and we've got a really long list here of songs that you have released.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:40

Yeah, so um the first song I ever released on streaming platforms was actually a cover of Driver's License by Olivia Rodrigo.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:49

Olivia Rodrigo, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:51

And it was like I rewrote the lyrics and it got like eight million views on TikTok, and I'd never had a video get viral. Like I it was actually right before that was like my first viral video. It was like it was the song Ultralight Beam. It's like Kanye West, and and it was like this part that goes, This is my part, nobody else speak. And then there was a trend of like put your own voice over it. And I was like a week behind, like a week past the due date of my global studies essay in the basement, procrastinating on TikTok, like literally working on the thesis. Like I was on paragraph one, and it it was due a week ago. Okay, and and I I made this video, I was like, this freaking essay was due last week. I can't do school online, and then glory be to God. And I posted it and it got like three million views. And I'd never had any like I hadn't even posted that many times at this point, right? But I never had anything get good views, and so I like the next day just went to posting music, like and like, and that was like kind of singing, but like the next day I did a cover of like The Kid LaRoy, and I can't take it back, so in the past is where I'll even. Um, and like I just did starting covers every day, not yeah, I was posting a lot, and then um, and then driver's license came out, and the same day it came out, I made that cover, and I was like, let me just change lyrics because I had seen uh Conan Gray's Heather from different perspectives, and I was like, I want to try that. So, and it blew up, and then I had floods of DMs on Instagram of like, hey, you're cute, or hey, I'm a producer, or hey, this, like so many, and I'd never experienced anything like it. And and and uh this producer reached out and she was like, Hey, do you want to like do a full version and put it out? And I was like, sure. Um, and at the same time, Nick Crompton from Team 10, like Jake Paul's like whole house situation LA, he reached out too because I guess now he I think he's an AR at Universal, and he was like, Hey, are you planning on doing anything with that? And uh, and I was like, Oh my gosh, like I know who this guy is, never had any experience with the industry. So I reached out to this producer that I just talked to, the girl, yeah, and I was like, I don't know what to do. They're reaching out, and she was like, they just want to take your money, like, don't go with them. And like, I have no idea what it could have led to, but like that was a major record label at the time, like, still is. So, but I just listened to her and I told them, Oh, I'm gonna do it independently. And I have no idea, like, I I may have missed an opportunity, I may have not. Um, but I did it independently with her and her other friend. We like finished writing it and recorded it over Zoom, and uh and then it was kind of a bummer because they were like, Well, we'll keep writing with you, like we think you're really great, we'd love to help you with more music and this and that. And then um, like the song came out and they never talked to me again. Um, and it's like the whiplash of the industry because I don't know anything, I don't know producers, and then I meet one and I'm like, wait, this is this might be it, like maybe. And so, but then it was fine. Like um, I wound up taking it down right before I released the album. Um, but then I I I wrote a song, I hate Valentine's Day, and on February 13th of 2020, and posted it, and I got like a hundred thousand views on on TikTok. And so a year later, 2021, I was like, wait, I should put that out. And I like reach out to some buddies. I'm like, does anyone know a producer who could like make this with me in a week? And they introduced me to Micah Steiner, and he is now my producer. Um, he lives here in Nashville, he's incredible. But it was the first song he had released was our song together. And like it's cringy, it's like, you know, it's a little bit like uh, but it's it doesn't sound horrible, you know. The vocals are good. Like, for what it is, I think the writing is okay. I would change some things if I went back. I would, I would, I I learned about the importance of repetition. So it says, like, I hate Valentine's Day. I hope next year I don't feel this way. I hate Valentine's Day, and uh, and that is something I will never change, or something. I think I would have just repeated the the second line again because I was at like uh my buddy's like party and someone blasted it, and everyone sang along, and they got to that part, and like they they all start mumbling. I was like, maybe it is better to just repeat.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:44

I mean, I feel like a lot of times, you know, I've done a little bit of songwriting, and when you go back and you go, it's the ones that are singable. I mean, sometimes it's great to I I mean, I really love an amazing lyricist um who's smart and clever, but there's certain parts that it's just not necessary, and I think sometimes we can get bogged down with like I'm gonna make it so interesting, and I'm gonna have you know a pre-chorus and two bridges, and yeah, have all it. It's like sometimes it's not necessary, and sometimes the simpler stuff. I mean, watermelon sugar is like freaking two notes, yeah, the majority of it. Yeah, like two notes.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:28

Yeah, crazy. Moved it up, went down to the one.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:31

Yeah, and uh I was like when I sat down to play it one time, I was like, that's low-key almost embarrassing. Not because it won a fucking Grammy, but still absolutely insane. But sometimes we make things a little more complicated. Okay, so he ended up what's his name again? Micah Steiner. Okay, so he ended up being your producer, and you guys decided, or you decided, to do this album.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:55

So I went, so I was in the band, and then it's like summer of 2024. I lived in Nashville for a little while in 2024 and really didn't get anything done. I was like playing way too much Minecraft, and and then Ephesus. Yeah, it is. I don't play anymore. I'm clean. Good job. Um I relapsed over winter break, but I'm clean again. Um, I I dude, I was so annoyed with my dad over winter break. Like I plugged in my PC, which like is at my parents' house, and I got on. I've been on for 15 minutes, and I hear my dad from downstairs, who ruined my son? He's back on the game. Like, I'm like, I'm not ruined, it's one game. I haven't talked to my Minecraft friends like in years. Like, get out of here. But it was because my my sister's husband, Luke, was like, we should all play Minecraft. So it like reminded me. I was like, let me go plug in the PC. But um but so I moved back home, I then I joined the band, and then um my old gymnastics coach, he's one of my best friends now, but he used to coach me. And he was like, Hey, would you want to go to California? And I was like, Yeah, like what's the deal? And he was like, There's this acrobat contract at California's Great America. It's a theme park where you would do tumbling and get paid. And he was like, I'm only telling you this because like you've been in Ohio for a little while at your parents' house, like it seems like you're getting stagnant. Like he's that kind of friend who like is like lock in, like, like he believes in me. And he, yeah. So he was like, and I think you're you can only do this when you're young, like so. I I I didn't know if I wanted to do it because we had so many Christmas shows coming up with the band, and we were gonna sing TSO music, Trans Siberian Orchestra. Yes, and I was so excited about it. But I was like, if I can find a way to make this acrobat thing also an opportunity for music, then I will do it. So I start reaching out to like an AR I I knew in California, and she like set me up with some writing sessions, like with some with a writers and producers. And so my plan was like go to San Jose, California, and then on the weekdays that I had off from the shows, drive down to LA and stay there and do sessions and then drive back up. It's like a seven-hour drive. Um and so I get there and we're doing rehearsals for like the first couple weeks, and I get a text from like both of the people I had sessions with in the same day, like, hey, holidays are coming up, I'm gonna have to cancel. Hey, I just got picked up to go on tour, I'm gonna have to cancel. And I was like, oh my gosh, what do I do? Like, because I I didn't know how to find sessions, I didn't know how to find producers. And and um Micah at the time was still living in Virginia at our college. So, like, and and both him and I were both kind of like weaker writers at the time. So I wanted to write with people that were better than me, right? Um, to learn and to get better songs. And so, like, if him and I came together, I don't know if we would have like we wouldn't have got an album like this at that time. And he was in Virginia, so it would have all been over Zoom. So um then I then I like just went down to LA anyways, and I was hanging out with my friend, and he's like, Do you want to hear? I was showing him some songs I've been working on. He's like, Do you want to hear mine? I was like, sure. I like forgot I was being selfish. I was like, Yeah, play me your songs. And he like plays one. I was like, Who'd you work on this with? He's like, Oh, this guy, Gavin Hunter. And I was like, Can I have his Instagram? He's like, sure. So I DM Gavin, hey, I'm Jareth, I just got to LA. Can we do a session? And then he's like, This guy, Tyler Bolton. I DM Tyler, hey, I'm friends with Gabe. Like, can we do a session? And like the next week when I came back for four days, I had like five sessions. And I was like, We're back in business. So I wrote, like the first week that I wrote, I wrote Pieces of You, which is on the album. I wrote Fall Apart Anyways, which is on the album, and I think Um Happy For You. All three of those are on the album. I think. And um, and I wasn't planning on releasing an album at the time, but in the ground I had written while substitute teaching at my school. I I also substitute teach like as my day job, but I I I wrote it like in a free period at school back in Ohio, and so I was also out there and I had that song. And I think I I don't think I wrote Haunt Me, I wrote another song before Haunt Me that didn't make the album. But I worked with like four different producers. It was Eric Potapinko, and he was from my hometown, so that was really cool. He was like from my hometown and moved out to LA, and like my math teacher was like, if you ever go to LA, you have to meet Eric. Like, he's amazing. He played guitar for Adam Lambert, like he's incredible. So I recorded In the Ground and Haunt Me with with Eric. And then I wrote Pieces of You, I Don't Have You, If I Wanted You Less, and Um Hold Me Close with Gavin Hudner, and then I wrote Why'd You Leave Fall Apart Anyways with Tyler Bolton and Jay Alan Tonis. I don't know his last name, Thanus. I don't know. And then um in the ground, I had already written and I recorded that with Eric. So um it I I like had all these songs, and then I started to find out like how it works with these producers, where we've got this song, if you want to release it, like my producer fee is like a thousand dollars or or like fifteen hundred, which like that's like standard, but I didn't know. Um, which is like it's alarm, like I but I didn't know, and so I had all these songs, like at this point I had four with one, and I was like, I would need six grand to put these songs out, like I don't have that. Yeah, I figured it out, but yeah, it'll be fine. I think it's fine, but yeah, so I like my my um yeah, I wouldn't have been able to I wouldn't have been able to put out the music, like I didn't I didn't know what to do. I was like, maybe I can put out one song like every couple months and then work and then put out another song. Um but um yeah, so then I had all these songs, and then I I uh went home. I went home for my sister's wedding, and then I had like a crazy summer. I like was in Nashville for two weeks. I was in New York City for a weekend, I was in Chicago for Lollapalooza. It was like really fun, but I wrote Getting Clean in Nashville with Reed Barron and my friend Nathan Crawford.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:07

It's it's my favorite on the album. I I I mean, I just love it. Um Getting Clean Um is about um trying to let go of a relationship like you were addicted to them like a drug.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:21

And um man, I I I never related to anything more because I was like, that's exactly what it feels like. And you keep going this this going back to something that you know is no good for you. It's not really even what you want. It doesn't give you the feeling that you were really anticipating. And I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:40

I don't know it doesn't give you the feeling that you had when you first had it anymore. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:46

Like just like, I mean, I don't do drugs, so I don't know, but like I I smoke cigarettes, I assure you that that the beginning is not what like at the end you're like that's just terrible. Why am I doing this? And you go back to it, you're like, why did I ever smoke these things? It's crazy. Um, but just the that addictive feeling though, like where you feel like you almost don't have control over yourself to do the thing that you just know you you're not supposed to be going back. Your girlfriends, your your guy friends are like, can you do it? Yeah, stop calling. Yeah, really? You call her again? Well, I don't understand. She's amazing. It's like, no, she was a she was a jerk, she was horrible, she drove us crazy. We hate her. Don't you say you hate her? How dare you say that? And then you're like, you're right, she's terrible.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:34

Yeah, the the whole time I was in L in LA, I was so well, once that contract ended, I moved down to Orange County and I was driving up an hour and a half for my sessions, like very many times a week for to do the sessions and then like staying with a friend in Orange County. Um, but one of the drives, it was like an hour and a half drive, and I talked to my friends like the whole time. Like that's just how I get through a long drive. And no one picked up. Like I called my mom, I called Brandon, the violinist, I called like all my friends, and no one picked up Greg, my coach, my dramatic, I called him, no one picked up. And I was sitting there, I was like, maybe she'd pick up. And and it it made me think of like like I I had read Beautiful Boy in high school about the boy who's addicted to like hard, hard drugs. And they say that like these like when you're an addict to something like that, like even when you're 10 years clean, you're still an addict. Like and and and like I mean, that's a whole different ball game, but like I was like, I wonder if there'll ever be a time where like you know, like it's it's the kind of thing with the tr with the drug where it's the highest you've ever been. So like like the rest of your life, there will always be. This little thing of like, but that felt like this.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:03

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:04

And like, and that's that's kind of what I thought. Like, like the the the song paused on in the radio and it's quiet. And my my brain goes to like, maybe I'll call her. And I was like, I wonder if that'll ever go away. So I wrote down in like in my notes, like, I think I know what it feels like to have an addiction. Yeah. Like I can I can find it. It was like the little moments between songs on a drive. I just want to call you. It never goes away. Um, I think I ate that up.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:33

I think that's like literally, literally. Um where is it?

SPEAKER_02 1:28:43

Yeah, the the high thing that you're talking about, though, is is is a for real for real. I don't know that it's the same if you have a nice, safe relationship. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:54

But the Yeah, this is the note. So it says, I think I know what it's like to have an addiction. There are things that just never get easier. The moments of silence in between songs on a drive. I just want to call you, it never goes away.

unknown 1:29:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:07

And I had that idea. I went into a session with Francis Carroll. He's an incredible writer. We wrote, we were trying to write that song, but we wrote come and go instead. We just like the vibes were different. Incredible song. And then, yeah, in Nashville, we wrote that song. Um, and then yeah, at the at the end of like it was coming up on the end of the year. This is also something I haven't talked about, but I auditioned for America's Got Talent last year and like went on, and I sang the sun and I made it through. Um, but they just didn't air my audition. So during that time, I was like planning on releasing an EP with like pieces of you. I was like, if they air my audition, I need to have this ready and release it on the day. Like, and they just never aired it.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:59

And then they want to know what you got out there and what they can consume and so they it just never got aired, which is okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:05

Like it was it was a really disappointing because like I made it through. Like I got the yeses and stuff, and then they they told us we can talk about it and post about it, but I'm like, I don't want to post about it. Like, hey, you never saw it, but I was there.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:18

Like, but I just think opportunity. There's another guy that I interviewed, his name is Zach Day, and he was on American Idol and the voice, and you know, and still working on his craft or whatever. And I'm like, listen, whatever is meant for you will find you. Yeah, and it doesn't miss you, and all of it is a part of the journey. Journey, yeah. And I think that, you know, no matter what we're trying to do, I mean, you know, I have uh my own agenda in interviewing musicians and you know, where I want to be and how long I think it's gonna take me to get there. I'm like, I never want to not be able to interview people that I go, everybody should know who you are. I would love for that to be something that I'm kind of known for, is just going in and going, you don't know who this person is, but they're amazing. Um but the main thing is that you know, we just we gotta just keep going and keep plugging along, and the only way that you lose is if you quit. And as long as there's no quitting, then it's a really exciting thing. Um, okay, we have to switch. Um, like I said before, the album in the ground that came out in October of 2025 is incredible. Incredible. But what we're gonna do now is I have seven rapid fire questions. And I say this every time. There are seven of them. It is not rapid. This is not rapid fire, but they are fire. It's just that they're not rapid, and I don't know what else to call them. But I love them, and we're gonna take our time with them because you don't have to answer fast. Number one, very important question. What would be your ideal vacation? And that could be where you go or what you do, or both.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:59

Um probably I went to Costa Rica with my friends like two years ago, and I would just do that again with those friends. It was so fun. My my friend has a house there, and he's like my age. Um so we went to his house in Costa Rica. Yeah, I would just go back. It was a blast.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:21

Yeah, that sounds awesome. It was like having a friend that has a a boat or a pool or a private jet, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:27

Or yeah, a house in Costa Rica, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:29

A house in Costa Rica. Good answer. Uh, number two, what's the best concert you've ever been to and somebody that you would like to see live?

SPEAKER_06 1:32:43

I guess.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:49

I've been to Lollapalooza, so like that was like a whole festival of concerts. But I saw Wild Rivers. Um, like they played there. They're probably my favorite group that I saw. Like they're live, their vocals live are just like amazing. Their songs are so incredible. Yeah. Probably, probably that. Like, I mean, Noah Khan puts on a great show. Post Malone puts on a good show. I haven't been to a ton of concerts, but like I've been to like Lollapalooza twice, and that just like quadruples all the concerts you've been to. We've seen everybody, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:24

Festival's okay. And who would you like to see?

SPEAKER_06 1:33:27

You could pick anybody. Um I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:40

That's such a good question. I feel like this should be an easy question. Oh, probably Jeremy Zucker.

unknown 1:33:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:47

Jeremy Zucker is like probably my biggest influence, is why I want to be a songwriter. I loved his his music.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:53

Okay. Yeah. Um next one. Overrated and underrated holiday.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:02

Valentine's Day overrated.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:06

Um, underrated holiday. That's such a guy thing to say. I know, but I've got the song. I have to stick with the branding for it. You know.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:16

Uh what's underrated? I don't know. We should spend more time, we should enjoy it more, we should love it more.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:28

Uh Christmas. I don't know. All right.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:34

Two overrated. Okay. Um, what about a weird food combo that you only you enjoy, or something like really decadent and delicious that you think we should try?

SPEAKER_06 1:34:46

Ooh, weird food combo.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:49

Probably I've made like some omelets with like apples in them. Ew. Or like a peanut butter and pickle sandwich. Like, that's really good. Okay, you I don't eat it like ever, but I've had them when I was young and they're they're solid.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:08

Peanut butters and pickles and eggs and apples. Yeah. Okay, of course, you win. Uh, what is the kindest thing anyone has ever done or said to you? For you or to you?

SPEAKER_04 1:35:22

Last year, when the first song of my album dropped, someone sent flowers to my house in LA. Like a whole bouquet of flowers. That's nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:33

Boys should get flowers. I asked my dad, I said my son was in a production, a musical, and I was like, should I bring him flowers? And he was like, I was like, Men don't get flowers until they're dead, yeah. Generally, yeah. And it's sad, and I think some of he's like That's what she said.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:51

She was like, Yeah, I saw this thing. Yeah. Said that.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:55

And he liked it.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:56

I love it. I like I don't even care about flowers either, but I was just like, that was really nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:01

The gesture is what you appreciated.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:04

Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:06

If I could have flowers on my counter or not, like I'm I'm such a like logical person. Like, I would just like rather not.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:12

Like, because but like it was like the fact that you know thinking of you on your special day, releasing music, big deal. Yeah, I'm thinking of you. Here's a big bouquet of flowers. Well, at least you could also say that you got flowers before you died, which is good. Yeah. Um, what is a personality pet peeve that you have? Something that gives you the ick.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:38

Um I think like complaining about I probably do it. I probably do it sometimes, but like complaining about things like traffic, like like it sucks, but like I I I try to live my life this way. Like I'm gonna be in the car for this amount of time, no matter what I do. Right. So if I like if I'm mad the whole time, then I'm miserable for an hour and a half.

unknown 1:37:09

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:09

But if I like just listen to music or talk to a friend, yeah, like if you like literally, yeah, you just have to choose to not be upset about you, and it's hard sometimes, right? But like like me being angry, I won't get there faster. I will just have higher cortisol levels and like be miserable, you know. So that might be one of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:35

That's a good one. I do, I do totally agree with that. I don't I like to drive, I'm an Uber driver, and my as my one of my part-times. And um, it's like when you get stuck in it. It's like, okay, this is an opportunity to think, listen to music, listen to music, call a friend. Um, and yeah, I've had partners. I had a part, my first husband was um just hated it and he would just bitch and moan the whole time. And I'm like, dude, what can we do? Nothing. Just chat. I like to trap anybody in a into a chat, and that's a quick way to do it, is in the car. For sure. So um, lastly, what are your words to live by? This is often something I think that you're thinking all the time that you are constantly saying to yourself, and it could be this year or something that you've always said to yourself, like in the subconscious.

SPEAKER_06 1:38:35

Probably like it will be okay because it has to.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:41

That's probably it.

unknown 1:38:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:45

Like, like I like, yeah, I could I couldn't possibly feel this way, or like I won't feel this way in two years or in a year about this girl or this situation. Like, I won't. Whether it's because she comes back or whether it's because I find someone new or I get like I won't. So, like holding on to the healing that you know will happen someday, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:13

Yeah. This two shall pass. It doesn't come to stay, it comes to pass. And that has always been a real comfort to me. Like, this is just a season. And whether it's a season, and you know, uh, what's his face? Tom Hanks said that, you know, that's an important thing to remember. This two shall pass, whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. So enjoy the good stuff and endure the bad, knowing that nothing stays the same forever. So it's just a ride. We're just on a ride. There's joy in the journey, as Michael Card says. All right. Thank you so much for your time today. This has been incredible.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:50

Of course. And I'm a yapper, so oh, it was it was great.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:54

It was great, it was perfect. Um, I feel like I learned something today that I'm gonna take with me for the rest of my life. I can't always say that. I'm so fucking pumped that I'm gonna get to go out there and start training my ear. What is it called again? What did you say?

SPEAKER_04 1:40:10

It was ear training? What is yeah, yeah. What is the word? Solf. How do you spell it? S-O-L-F-E-G-E. Oh, it's probably like Italian or something. Yeah. Meaning Solf. Um word of the day. Yeah. So yeah, Solf is like functionally interchangeable with numbers. So like Do and one. Like Do, one, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, one. It restarts at one after seven. So they're they're interchangeable, but both of them are used to like, oh, that's what the four sounds like. That's what fa sounds like. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:53

Love.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:54

But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:54

Learned a lot today. Um, I do want to say that um I hope that as you move forward with your career, that number one, you keep your beautiful, wonderful attitude, which is such an important thing to have. You seem like a really grateful human being, and that people find you left and right, and then you get to do this amazing thing with the gift and talent that you have, and that you continue to find people who follow through with the things that they say that they're going to do, and you find opportunity everywhere you turn, and that you just enjoy a really amazing career because you are amazingly talented at what you're doing. It's so great. I just love your music so much. Thank you. Thank you for your time today. Thank you so much. That was awesome. All right, enjoy the rest of your day and stay safe. I know you're by yourself, but get your water and your candles out.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:45

Yeah, we should be fine. I'm from Ohio. You're like, this is crazy. You guys are ridiculous. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:52

All right. Thanks so much, Jared. Have a great day. Thanks for having me. Have a great day.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:56

All right, bye.