Richard Bedford ON: Dreaming Big & Ignoring The Naysayers

Have you ever been told to stop dreaming and get a proper job? 

Today I sit down with the very amazing Richard Bedford. Richard is a  grammy-nominated, UK-based, singer-songwriter. 

Richard shares his vulnerable side  about the peaks and troughs of following your passion, dreaming big and how he "faked it 'til he made it!" Against a backdrop of friends and family telling him to "stop floating around and get a proper job," Richard describes key moments in his life that taught him to change direction and stay true to himself. 

Once you've watched this, please share it with your kids. We all need to hear this!

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Transcript

0:00

Hi everyone. My name is David Ogilvie and this is the podcast where I explore what it means to live feel and work better dreaming big is both good and bad advice, on the one hand it's essential to know where you were going and on the other it can lead to unrealistic expectations and disappointment later down the line. This week I'm joined by Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Richard Bedford exploring how he turns small dreams into a big one. Our conversation tracks his journey in the reality of starting in small bands and being told to get a proper job, right through to singing in front of huge crowds worldwide with super DJ Armin Van Buuren. So hello Richard, welcome to the resilience development podcast, I'm very excited to have here. Hi David, I'm really pleased to be here too. Yeah, good because I said this a lot to guests on my show, but we know each, don't we, we're very old friends. Yeah, we met in about 1990/91, I guess. That's a long time ago now isn't it. How many years is that? Yeah. Mmm, thirty - two? Thirty - two / thirty - three. Yeah, thirty-one / thirty-two In about that. Yeah, showing our age by the fact that we couldn't work out that maths. Do you remember how we met? Yeah, I turned up with no, no idea what I was doing to, er , to audition, to audition for a band that you were in, in the sunny hills of West Yorkshire and Ellen. Mmm, West Yorkshire, because we're obviously both from West Yorkshire and we we've been stuck together ever since really haven't we? Yeah, pretty much, lots of kind of peaks and troughs and kind of, you know, yeah. Yeah. It's been a, a nice Journey. And some some, some adventures along the way some, some which we might we might touch on others we couldn't possibly touch on. And I suppose with this, cause we know each other with this because we know each other so well, we'll have to watch for that slipping into real informality. Have to watch for that. Yeah, Yeah, unless you've got a bleeper then, you know, we're best off being good,been good. and...We'll see where we end up. I mean I haven't got bleeper, but I do have the, I do have the technology, we will be able to bleep it, but hopefully what come to that. It might come, come to that if we are somewhere else but not, but not today. No, but we're gonna be on our best behaviour. We are best behaviour because we're going to talk today really about, about dreaming big and chasing your dreams and it kind of, ahh yeah ! Yeah, I think before we go forward, let's go, let's go backwards. Let's go back to that, ummm,when we first met you were auditioning to be in a band and you were coming to play keyboards, Weren't you? Yes. And I always thought you. Yeah, that's right. You were a brilliant keyboard player, right? Absolutely brilliant keyboard player. And I had no idea what I was doing. Well, I didn't get a really good job of not of, of cause you got in, didn't you? Got in the band, but... I did get in the band, you know. Which I faked it before I made it. So it must have looked like we knew what we were doing, but we didn't, so, everybody's in the same boat. I remember being, I remember being really nervous. Yeah. We had a very energetic drummer at the time. Who was.... We didn't we? Over excited. Yeah, he was like the drummer of The Muppets weren't he? Yeah, or someone from Spinal Tap. Yeah, and he had lots of hair didn't he and it, wasn't he a rock drummer. Well, the only band we ever listened to was Marillion. Okay, Okay. So there is some Clues out there really there's some Clues here already about dreaming big and why I might be talking to you about dreaming big, ummm, because we go back all, all of those all of those years. We played in a band together, ummm, I originally came across you as a keyboard player. I loved the way you played keyboards. Do you remember the keyboard, what was that big thing that you used to have, that big, you used to drag it around everywhere It's massive, It's like, it's like a table. It was huge it went about 13 stone. It was a Viscount InterContinental drawbar organ. Yeah. Big silver thing it looked like it should have been on the set of you know, the original series of Star Trek . Yeah, it looked cool. It sounded cool as well didn't it, it did sound cool. Yeah. Yeah. I have no idea where it is. No, but not that that did sound cool and then one day you started to sing, we kind of started to have musical differences because I remember you start to sing and at the time I think even now one of your big influences is Depeche Mode, you're a big fun of Depeche Mode. And yeah and for me, I wanted to play a kind of funk guitar. I wasn't interested in you know, that kind of of music, but I remember we've been friends ever since, ever since but I remember we we kind of went separate, we didn't fall out, we kind of went separate ways because I, I had some advice for you and at the time I wanted to kind of, you know, I didn't want to play for the rest of my life, I wanted to kind of go build a career and have a family and do all of that stuff. Um, but you had a different idea didn't you? I don't know if it was an idea. I think it was.... a kind of path that I just never left somehow. I don't think, because you were always really driven you had a, a definite, definite goals and kind of you know, you'd have short-term goals and long-term goals and you know you, you seemed Yeah, very kind of clear in your direction. Whereas I was kind of.... Yeah, I floated around a lot more I think. Mmm, went to UNI got lots of degrees in Sound Engineering and music, that kind of thing. Well, I started, I started off, I don't know if you remember, but I left the band that we were in at first to go and do a fine art degree, and I lasted about 18 months I think, which is fairly typical of me, at the time...ummm.... and I mean, I always consider it is out, I was far too, far too young and also when I, when I, went to when I went to University in Sheffield, I realized that I could book out the recording studio, and so even though I was doing a fine art degree, I was just booking the recording studio out all the time, and It just seemed slightly kind of ridiculous that I was doing a course that wasn't right for me. So yeah, so I shifted away and then yeah, I ended up graduating sort of quite a few years later. Yeah, and then I remember you wanting to pursue a career in music and remember me saying to you, you need to get a job. Yes, you need to Serious job. You and and most of the rest of the world were kind of telling me that, ummm... Yeah, get a proper job, you know...ummm Yeah, it's a it's a very very common.... It's a very common response to someone kind of push you in an unusual career path, I guess. Yeah, and I often think. Go on..... I was gonna say I perhaps didn't help myself, by being quite as as flaky as I might have been when I was in my younger years. Younger years. So, so people people automatically assumed that I was just being floaty. Yeah float. Yeah floating around. I think I might use that term to you at some point, floating around, stop floating around, you just need to get a job.... Richard. Right, so let's fast forward to now. Right, let's fast forward to now. How, you know, where you are now? I mean let's start with...ummmm.... Grammy nominated. Yeah, yeah I was nominated for a Grammy at the 61st Grammy, Grammy Awards, nominated for best dance recording we got...ummm thrashed by Juel a lipa, Diplo and Mark Ronson, but that's not a huge, huge surprise. There might have a little bit more Clout than we did....uummm... But yeah, I mean, I've been very, very lucky.... Ehhh...yeah...I've played all over the world...some some fairly prestigious venues like Madison Square Garden. Forum in LA, umm... Yeah, I've played in arenas and stadiums, yeah, across the globe which is, yeah, pretty, pretty lucky really. Yeah, and if I go if I go into YouTube and talk Richard Bedford I'm gonna see some big videos with some big hits aren't I! I haven't looked in a while you sort of, yeah, I guess you get, you get a bit tired of looking but, yeah....ummm.. I don't know. 250 million plus probably, Yeah. I guess kind on hits on the.. Yeah, it's not, it's not bad. Repertoire. Not bad from a lad from West Yorkshire is it? Not with his Viscount InterContinental organ. Exactly, so I think the moral of this story is and the tip for people wanting to live better, work better and feel better, which is what this podcast is about is don't take any advice from me because I clearly don't know what I'm talking about. It's difficult, isn't it? I was watching the, the famous Arnold Schwarzenegger speech talking about don't listen to the naysayers, you know and, and you know, whatever you think of him as a politician or he's acting career, you know, you, you can't help or for me that certainly resonated, it really clicked with m, because you know, while I may have been kind of lacking in direction, you know in my kind of early 20s, I think.... I just simply kept going, I just kept pushing at what, what I love really, you know and didn't deviate from that path, and I think there's this idea that.... you know, I'm really driven and I always had this confidence, or I was, and it's just ,it's just nonsense, I mean, you must remember I was one of the shiest guys around, you know, I had a kind of extrovert side but you know, I was also kind of very, very shy in sort of company that I didn't know so... Yeah, I think that, so, so the music and this direction that I kind of happened upon in a sense this kind of yeah, it's kind of grown with me. It's a part of me now. Yeah, it's .... It just it's interesting to use the words happen upon because... you were always very creative and you were always... focused, doesn't matter what anybody said to you, you were always, you are always, I always remember that response 'No, this is what I want to do'.'This is what I'm gonna do'. I was always very, very stubborn with it, absolutely, you know, but I think there was also a fear in me that I wasn't sure, I wasn't sure what else I could do. You know, I think there was a kind of I've given it much. I think there's a point where you've gone all in. Yeah, make or break. You know, it's you've gone all in and in there is, there is no,there is no reverse gear, so, you've got to just kind of push it and I think I mean, I think I was in that, I think I was in that place kind of when I guess the sort of the career part of my musical path kind of took hold, really. You know. so, in some what I'm gonna say in some ways, that's the sort of interesting story in itself because...what year was it 2005? So, 2005 so we're a long way away from when we first met and I kind of milled around played in kind of various bands developed a bunch of skills that you know, didn't make me terribly employable...ummm...but but then a friend I'd met at College was, was, was working for Andula Beach Records at the time and just had been banging at me to send, to send a demo in, because they were looking for a singer, and...er Yeah, essentially I'd, I'd got to this I'd got to this age where...ummm... yeah, where, I wasn't, I genuinely wasn't sure... where what... Yeah, I wasn't sure whether, whether I was ever going to kind of do anything in music if that makes sense. So, so ummm.. so, yeah, so it was, it was, it was when I was on a residential course and I'd been and I'd gone there as a filmmaker because as you know, I've always done lots of different things. So, I've gone there as a filmmaker and Ummm...Yeah, when anyone you know is a big group of us he was about working with young people in the, in the prison system and, ummm... yeah, so I'd been I'd been just introducing myself as a kind of videographer and, err.... And it wasn't till the last night when everyone was having a few glasses of wine and there was a guitar going around because there were a bunch of musicians there and ummm... everyone had sort of done a bit of return and then they just said, you know, do you play? Richard? and I said 'ahh..a little bit, you know' and, so, they said 'oh! Go one do something, you know' so, all right, and I've written a song kind of I don't know six months previous. So I played it and it was just absolute hush in the room. It was just like oh! my and I was like, ah, this this might be a thing maybe I should send that demo. So, if I hadn't gone on that course my life may be very, very different now. If that makes sense? No, no! Interrupted with a with a phone call in the middle of that, but the joys of my Mum. Say hello to her, from me. Ummm... No. No that makes a lot, I think a lot sense, because I talked to lots of people and they go if I hadn't done this, then possibly I wouldn't be where I am now. Yeah. And you can never know when that, that moment's gonna, gonna come it really is an absolute, you know, a lottery, you can give yourself, I think you can give yourself more more chances, I mean this is why networking and kind of making connections and spreading your arms wide is very important because you give yourself more of a chance, but umm... Why.. I see that's interesting, because I mean obviously, you know, my my kids Ben and Lilly I tell them both ...ummm... I do. Um, luck we talk about luck I don't where, it's not my idea got it from somewhere, but I don't know where it's from, if anybody knows then in amonst let me know, it's brilliant. You might know when I say, but luck I often think of luck is the combination of preparation and opportunity. The more you prepare and the more opportunities you create the luckier you'll be. In other words, don't just. Yeah,100%.And that's how I tend to, tend to think about because I think just going back to what you said earlier about not knowing what you want to do I think anything below 20 is and it's everything below 25 is um it's a terrible age to know exactly what you want to do, or to feel the pressure that you know exactly what you have to do. So, I mean I've got two , two kids as you know, Ben he knows exactly what he wants to do and has done, a little bit like, like me ,right, Lilly, is not so sure. Interestingly, she's very creative. You know very, very creative. She's not sure what she wants to do, she knows that she wants to progress certain careers and things like that. I just think that's brilliant, I love the fact that she doesn't know and I love the fact that she's willing to go out in into the world. She wants to go Uni, she go uni, she'll do take on some education and she'll work out where she needs to be. I think, I think it is very, there's this emphasis in the world that you must you, must just know what you want to do and you must just drive and go pursue your dreams basically Dream big and go get it. But that leads you to, well, what if you don't know what you want to do? I think there's also, there's, there's an addition to that which is within the Arts so, if... you know, young Jaime's great with his hands likes getting in and he's really good kind of solving, solving problems and kind of, you know, Yeah, kind of making stuff very kind of dexterous and kind of you know, good at problem solving then, yeah, Jaime's maybe, maybe gonna be mechanic or maybe gonna be a you know, a carpenter or whatever, you know, you can see that definite career path, but those career paths within music, especially when you've got the naysayers hmm, who who were saying... Get yourself a proper job, you know and I mean essentially that's that's down to, that's down to people. How many, how many people know someone who's, who's made it to some extent made a career in the music industry or as a as a fine artist or as a filmmaker, you know it, it becomes yeah, it becomes very... if we, if you don't know anyone that's done that it becomes a pipe dream. Yeah. Their just people kind of on, you know, on on screens are on, you know... any.. but... but yeah, but essentially going back to what I was saying, I think, I think that, that clear career path within the Arts isn't, isn't defined and part of that's its beauty you can kind of.. and, and that probably appealed to my floaty nature, you know, so I think It is, it is , it is difficult to you know, because career progression is often yeah, very self-generated. It's not... It's not necessarily something that is, you know, you're not, you've not got you know, I start this job I get a promotion, I do this..da da da da you know, there's not a career kind of path as such you form your own and that's quite scary. Yeah, it's interesting because we assuming career progression is upwards as opposed to breadth.... Yeah, okay. Yeah, that would make sense... As well, cause if I think about you and what you really good at, you know you're good with a camera, good with computers, good with music, singing, you know it, all of that, all of that stuff because I know you produce your own work, but you're also a songwriter for other people. Aren't you? Yeah, yeah, I write for other people...errr ... I've got a bunch of kind of......certainly more, more nowadays than ever really I've got, I've got lots of, lots of things on the go and for me that really works, because it keeps me, stops me feeling stale, I can just kind of in my creative day I can go from one project to another to another to another and then if that feels stale you move to another and it kind of builds up as a kind of.. Yeah, as kind of Mosaic. Yeah, I'm assuming there's some things that you have to do that don't feel particularly creative but the keep the, you know. That's why you have the creative little projects. So you do that for kind of two hours and then you go, I just can't listen to that anymore and you move on to this, great little kind of quirky project that you're working on. that'll make you no money at all. Yeah, But it's just, it's... I mean if I if I go look on YouTube and things like that, you know, it's always so it's nice. Oh, yeah, that's my mate...I am very proud of you, you know, so that's a you know, that's that's my mate. But if you look at it you go the reality is very different to the rhetoric isn't it? It's not all. Extremely. It's not all glamour and big big... I always, I always remember I think it was probably I think I saw a YouTube or it might be the Van Buren gig, is this massive, absolutely massive stadium and you're, you're just sat, sat away from them everybody else, just you. And it must be, I don't know how many people was in that that place at the time. I think that's the Ziggo Dom in in Amsterdam. It's not, it's not huge but it's like 15, I think 15,000, probably. So, what's huge? What's the biggest you've ever? Oh crikey! err... I don't know played Global Gathering main stage that was the first show I did when I'd kind of moved into that world and that was I guess 50,000 but it was live on radio 1, too. Yes, that was a little so people to see that and go, Oh, yeah, he's made it big and look at him isn't he great but it's a lot of hard work and a lot less glamor in the background, isn't it? So we're talking about dreaming big here and it's okay to dream big. you got a kind of follow up with with the realism and can you talk a little bit about the realism of being you know, I think you toured with Armin van Buuren did I get that right? Yeah, Yeah, we did when it's 38 shows. Right. I mean must you know, my son Jerry, you know, he just been he's just been born, Ummm, so that was a really difficult time to go on a 38 date world tour. Yeah. You know, luckily, luckily I kind of looked at the proposed dates and it worked to some extent and, and I had a, you know, I had a long conversation with with Jerry's Mum, Charlotte and umm, we figured we could kind of, yeah, we could work that work that out, But I mean, yeah, it was, it was and that's, that's the this kind of, this, this normal everyday life and then there's this crazy world you find yourself in, you know, and I remember after every show That's, there would be a kind of party at front of house and Armin did a vinyl set and I remember, every single show I just kind of find a quiet corner and just with my little glass of champers and, and just kind of, and you were in the middle of the crowd, and so, it kind of hide away and just kind of take it in because it's difficult to take it in when you performing. And so, and I just take it in and go wow! How did I end up here? What, how did this happen like, you know and it wasn't a single show where I didn't have that kind of that sense of the only thing I can kind of like in it to is standing at the edge of a kind of a huge cliff with an expanse that you didn't know was there, just kind of takes your breath away a little bit and you're gonna go Wow! , I had no idea I had not, how did, how did that suddenly appear? You know, and it's almost like it's very otherworldly. And if, there's anybody, if there's anybody listening to this that wanted to kind of go, you know what I want to be up there and do what he's doing, on reflection is there any advice that you could give them, when you look back and go and ask the question? How did I get here? I know, you know you you might go I'm not really sure but if I pushed you to think back about the kind of big steps or advice that you give anybody. Well, I think, I think first first thing in rather than big steps, I think the first thing, I think the first thing would be what, what worked in my favour, you know, we'll talk about me being floaty, I don't know how many times I've said that on this but, one of the things that really, really helped me I think, is , is having that ability to, to work in a variety of different disciplines, be multi instrumental, learn how to play keyboards, It's not hard, learn how to play guitar, learn how to do all these different things then even if you're not playing those instruments, because I mean I don't play keys very often anymore. I write on piano that's about it, but but, know what it's like to be the drummer. Hmm. Or all the sound engineer, you know, then you can always, then you can have a much kind of clearer understanding of what they're trying to do and. and creatively it's gonna make a huge difference and then I mean we all need to be, the modern musicians got to wear so many different hats, so you can't just be a singer, you know, that's I mean, that's what the X Factor generation would have you believe but it's, it's not that that isn't reality you've got to be, you know, you you speak to even someone is successful as a Beyonce or Alicia Keys, they're gonna know so much more that than you see, you know, that is literally the tip of the iceberg, there's a wealth of of knowledge underneath that and you need that, you know and I think and that helps you especially you know in a world where you can self-release, where you can publish your own, your own materials. You can do videos on YouTube. You know, that gives you a head start so get great, as much, as you can really kind of, you know, even if you just want to be a guitarist, be great at all sorts of different things and it will just help influence and feed creatively what you're doing? Yeah, as you were talking about that I was thinking that I mean, that's the same for any team. If you can understand technically what the people's limitations, whether that's a drummer, and, you can have empathy for them. That's gotta be good all round, hasn't it? Everybody, everybody gets better from understanding that. And I think it also takes the pressure off in terms of, in terms off performance anxiety because there's not the same, you're not putting yourself under the same pressure because the other people around you all understand how difficult it is to do your job. Yeah. So, I mean that was one of the things that, ummm that Armin said that really stuck, stuck in my head, ummm, when we did our very first show and he just said you know, someone will make a mistake tonight you might have said it in slightly more flowery language, but but yeah, it's if someone will make a mistake tonight and I want you to get behind them and kind of make, you know, make sure that they're okay because that's just a part of it. There's no judgment. There's no stress with it. It's just part of performing live, you know. Speaking of. Really stood by me, go on.. Yeah, well it's very human isn't it as well. Yeah, of course. It's very human, which is I mean if you're doing 38 places around the world that's you want to be working with people like that, don't you? Yeah, because you kind of going it, it kind of going in my head, you know, you talking about performance anxiety or I might just made those words up, right? I'm kind of. No. No, that's definitely it. I'm kind of going how do you go from.. you know, singing in a small band, right, right up to standing in front of, did you say 50,000 people? Yeah, I think there's probably that. How, how ... any hints or tips. Do you remember going out the first time? Yeah. I remember being petrified All the nerves.Literally. Well, it's not just it's not just performance anxiety, It's the other things that come with it, sometimes kind of like a little bit of knowledge doesn't help so, and I knew a bunch of technical things that could possibly wrong, that were out of my control, and it, and this... there's 18,000 people at this show who don't know any of those things and we'll just, you know, so, there's this.. remembering, remembering words, it's it's remarkable. I mean, you know, I wrote the song you think you'd remember the words, but I mean and luckily touch wood I've never forgotten but you are aware that you know, any, you start questioning everything and I had to do with kind of a little trick with myself, whereas just I just find a spot before, I was at the bottom of the stairs waiting to go on stage and I just find a spot be a speck of dust, a bit of blue tag something and I'd literally just focus on that completely, just forget everything else, just focus on that, it's kind of a mindful thing. Where you you'd pull yourself into a moment, and the weird thing was I'd be really nervous about you know, kind of questioning all the multitude of things that we're going to go wrong. There's also the thing where you think I'm gonna go to the top of the stairs and everyone's just gonna laugh at me and I know you know that that's nonsense and that isn't a conscious thought but it's still there. Yeah. There are a lot of things in there about what we teach people like, why you forget when you're under, under stress. It's a stress response, you're not supposed to be making logical decisions when you stressed, you're supposed to be just fight or flight simple as that. So your brain goes fuzzy and that, that kind of distraction technique or the grounding technique that you're doing, like focusing on something in particular is a, is a good one and it's really easy to do that -What if, what if, what if, what if what if, and catastrophize. Exactly, but it's unknown, that's the thing and what, and this is going back to what you were saying, what you're saying about Lilly is, is when, when I, as soon as I set off up the stairs and got on stage that all went. Yeah. Because I was facing it with something that I was prepared for. Yeah. My prior prep had, you know, I was like, oh, there's not a dragon at the top of those stair, it's just a crowd and I'm singing to them and I've done that many times and it.. but, regard, I mean, it doesn't matter how many times you do it, you know? Yeah, it gets you. I was aware, I was aware that when I got to the top I'd probably be okay, you know, but. It's that self-talk isn't it? Which applies to everybody, no matter what you do, whether you just standing up at work to deliver a presentation, whether you're going for a job interview or they're standing in front of 50,000 people to sing. It's the same thing going, same thing going on. This is all the stuff I wish we were taught about at school, you know, but I won't even go there, you're into Resilience Development Company stuff, but you, but we are kind of, you know passionate about that, that stuff and I'm guessing as a, as a professional singer, you'll understand the power of breathing and being able to use that to ground you and things like that, but it's it's amazing to think about all those years ago in that roo, totally nervous having an audition in front of, you know, some people who weren't that great, but you know, and then suddenly all these years down the line you're doing that, that's massive. It's an amazing thing that. Yeah, I guess it is, I mean I tend to look back at moments with the kind of wry smile, but I tend to look forward far more than I do. You think you are you are future focused as opposed to... Yeah, very much so, you know, I mean, sometimes I catch myself and someone will post something on you know, like the, with the the Armin tour for instance, there was a a camera crew followed us for the year, and they, and so there's there's a bunch of Road movies. So there was a road movie kind of like for I think it was, I think it was twice a month, they did a road movie and, umm, someone posted one up just on my social media and I'd kind of like oh, I forgot about you know, and then you kind of you see all of this stuff that's gone on, that I had completely and utterly, Not necessarily forgot about but it brought it to kind of the present. You know, it made me realize how, how fun that was. Did you ever have times on any of those tours where you thought, you know, Oh, this is not the right thing for me. The really tough days, or was it all just just glamour and glitz and yes, I've made it. No, there was no. Oh yeah. there was that. I mean like, I don't I don't remember a great deal of glamor and glitz. It's very functional. You know,ummm... Like we did it we did a show in Minsk and then, and then we had to fly straight from the show to Helsinki and do, do a rehearsal, have a little bit of sleep and then did another show. And it was kind of that was unbelievably kind of tiring. I think there was there was a point where we're all on sort of 38 hours no sleep and just about to do a show, You know, Insane, but it's just how that kind of worked out, you know, and various things like, you know, I was in Manila flew back to the UK said hi! to everyone, flew back to Australia, it's just like, insanity in terms of kind of, and then, I mean my solo shows, I mean, I remember coming off the plane, I played a show in Egypt and I got off the plane sweaty, thirsty, hungry all the usual stuff thinking I'll get to the hotel have a shower put on my kind of suave clothes for the show and yeah, they just drove me straight to the venue. So, and said and literally I got out of the car and they went Hi!, nice to meet you and passed me a mic, so no sound check, this, I mean it was only a small show, but it's still like 2,000 people at the University of... was it... American University in Cairo. Yeah. Because that. So, that's just like, that's not terribly glamorous, I didn't smell terribly glamorous. Because that's the interesting thing and that, that it's that kind of it's good to dream big. It's good to dare to to dream,and I think you have to have that... Mmm, what's the right word? You've got to have that realism that it's going to be hard work to get there. There's no such thing as an overnight success. It's hard underneath it. It's, it's hard. It's generally what I found. It's a job, I mean, it's a job, it's a job, it's a job David, I mean it really is, You know, Yeah, I tend to be working most days from from when I get up to when I go to bed, you know, I have to kind of timetable other stuff otherwise, yeah, I mean, it's just not got, it's not getting a looking in. And the mix it with family and... Oh, yeah, I mean, yeah, of course, I mean, you know, yeah like some holidays that some at the moment, you know, so I've got Jerry alternate days. So, you know, I've got to kind of factor that in so then I tend to be working longer night, what you know, way through the night on days when I don't have him, you know. But yeah, I mean that's just but it is just a job, essentially. Yeah, I say I always think that's interesting when I, guess I work with lots of people, you know in my my role I've worked with very young I've worked with Fire, Military, ummm...I've worked with doctors, midwives all sorts of people and they say the same thing, it's just a job. And I kind of think well, it it's not my old job was just a job looking back at it, right, working in finance it was just a job, but then I look at kind of what you're doing and what they're doing is, you've got other real sense of purpose, and you've got to be able to kind of, you've got our resilience. You've got to be able to keep pushing through and being able to to adapt so, it is just a job, but of course because I know you it's, it's not it's a real vocation for you, isn't it? If I said to you you've got to stop tomorrow doing what you're doing, even those rubbish projects that you don't really want to, you don't really want to work on and you've got to be, I don't know, you got to go work in finance. You wouldn't go, Okay, then it's just a job, would you? there's. Yeah, there's just not a chance. I mean like it's, it's just a part of, it is a part of who I am, but I think that's something that grows, it grows over time. Yeah. Too, you know. And the resilience also grows over time. Yeah. You know, ummm, I think there is, there is something, it certainly not unique but there's something kind of, I guess one of the frightening things, so there's the idea that it's difficult to make it, and there's also the idea that it's, ummm you know, living the dream and all of the sort of glamorous stuff, you know, that blinds you. I think it was Peter Hook said, but but it's it's more, you can crave the opportunity and you can push and you can push and you can push for the opportunity but when you get there, you're not sure if you can do it. How it's, there's very little to prepare you for yeah, am I gonna, am I gonna cut it? Yeah. For want of a better word. Okay, that's very, you know, there is a real leap of faith there and you just don't know, you know, I mean you can do gigs at your local pubs and you know, but when, just right, I just I remember going in to record for the first time with Above and Beyond, I went in shock hands with Tony. I didn't really know too much about Above and Beyond at the time, but you know, I was aware that Tony was Madonna's Marketing manager and it kind of been involved in managing REM and Simply Red and all of this and suddenly you've gone from my mates down 'The Puzzle' in Sowerby Bridge, to I'm now singing. Yeah, with a. And I've got to you know, and and and you don't know how you're going to react to that and you don't know if you're good enough. You don't know if you're gonna cut that. You know so all of that work and all of that time and all of that, building self belief and building resilience and building all of this, you know, There is a, there is, there is a jump and hope that there's a net at the bottom. Yeah, get you, because if you, you're kind of talking about fear of failure almost aren't we and we kind of going, I think there's a difference between fearing failure and not liking it, and I also think if you fear failure completely you don't take that leap of faith. Because it is a leap, it is a leap of faith, you can only prepare so much and then you've got to take the leap and for some people, even though they've prepared, worked hard, they might not cut it. That's the reality of the world. The world can be a cruel place, can't it? So I completely, I completely understand that. Would you rec....But,, it's just been confronted, confronted by that. Yeah. In such kind of clear terms that you go, and I hadn't considered that, on the way down. I was nervous and all those things but it was just when I was confronted with the music and a vocal booth and a microphone and three guys kind of like, listening and I just suddenly thought this is a sink or swim moment. Yeah, I didn't know this was coming. Yeah, I was aware of it, you know. And it obviously went well. I think initially I was terrible but but then you know after I'd kind of got over thinking about that sink or swim moment and kind of warmed to the task. But yeah, so and again, sometimes that thinking can just get in the way, if you could rewind back to that, that moment that we met right, if you could rewind back to the Richard of that moment, with hindsight, What advice would you give him? Would you tell him? Get a proper job. I knew I was right. I would likely, yeah, I mean, I'd likely tell him to embrace it, to embrace it and embrace as much musical experiences you could, don't be don't be shy about being involved in this project or that project, just kind of immerse yourself in it because it's the only way, and I think had I done that earlier, I wouldn't have waited till I was 132 till I brought out the first single, you know. You like the Yoda of the music industry then he's, he's 100 and odd isn't he... Yeah. If I take these headphones off my ears, oh, there we go. Yeah, I think, I think just embrace it, because I kind of like flipped between. Yeah. Quite a lot and I think there was confidence issues and just, just become an expert in what... you love and and the rest will follow. Yeah. It might not be easy and they'll be tough times but just become an expert in what you love and and it will pay out, doesn't matter what that is. Yeah, and don't listen to David. That's the other bit of advice. Yeah, to tell yourself. Just don't listen to, don't listen to, you know, yeah, the naysays. Just don't, I mean I was coming from a complete position of care. Of course you were and as was, you know, everybody that told me that. Yeah, I'm...when I was.... I'm glad you proved us the wrong, especially me. Especially. oh! What's next? What can we expect from you over the next 12 12 months because you did talk about one point doing some kind of online, online course for people further down the line, because there are a lot of people, I mean, when we first started we had to lug our gear and it was big gear wasn't it? I remember having a big massive amplifier, the keyboard that was big gear now you can do a lot in just a room, you can do it in your living room or your bedroom with technology and you can emulate things. Yeah, of course, course, you can practically do it on your phone. Yeah. Are we ever going to see anything like a, you know, learn with Richard Bedford, we're ever gonna see that or? I have been, I have been putting together some ideas for, I guess for sharing some of this, my kind of however long it's been in the in the music industry, the pitfalls the kind of trying to, like you were saying about rewinding back to the kind of younger self kind of an idea of doing that but for other people so they don't they don't have to do those yeah, they don't have to kind of fall down all the, the potholes that I did on the way through. Cause I can remember, I remember I can't remember when the conversation was, but I remember asking you- How long did it take you to get to the point where you released your first single and you were something like 20 years or something like that. I said to you if you had known now If you don't know then what would you know now, how long would it take you and you immediately said something like- Ahh six months. You were like and I think that's the point and I think you know, when when we wanted to create these podcasts, that was the inspiration for it, there's some amazing people out there with amazing stories and wisdom to pass on particularly down the line, and I just don't think, I just don't think we do enough of that especially in the world that says, um, you know, you can be a success, you can just dream big just follow these five steps, follow these five steps on YouTube and off you go and I think it it is about balance I may sound a little bit cynical there, but it is about that balance, I'm a big believer in people dreaming big but it has to be tempered with discipline and hard work and experience and again putting yourself out there to receive wisdom and mentoring and experience from people who've been there. And that's that's a part of what we're saying about the immersive experience really immerse yourself in the whole, the whole experience of your, of your career in a sense all you kind of area of love, you know, I think because I think without that you, someone else is doing it, you know, it's almost a kind of sporting analogy. You know the kind of, you know, Muhammad Ali getting up at 5am in the, in the morning and running ten miles because he knew, everyone else was in bed, it just gives him an edge and it's just, it's not necessarily about a kind of competitive driven thing in a sense. It's just you know, if you love what you do, really, you know, digest as much of that as you can I think. Yeah. You know. It's food on the table eat it kind of thing. Yeah, just and and try everything. You know try everything. Yeah, it's good advice. Any, any kind of particular projects that you're working on at the moment because I want this to be a platform for people to come on and kind of go - Look I'm working on this come and check me out and I think I'm sure the people, I mean I can just type Richard Bedford in Google and you'll come up on Twitter and everywhere else, and Facebook, are there any little side projects that you're working on that you kind of might want to mention for people to check out. Well, yeah, I've got I've got I'm gonna have a bunch of singles coming out, ummm, towards the tail end of the year and the start of next year, ummm, in my usual area of kind of electronic music, but I'm also, I'm also working on... errr... a side project with a producer called Joel Artison, and that's, I'm really, really liking the sound of that. It's kind of more Royksoppy kind of Radioheady flavored kind of project which I'm really excited about. I have another project called Humanity, which is much more straight Electronica, and I've also been, in through the sort of lockdown times, just enjoying making relaxation and ambient music and music for meditation in yoga. So, so I've just I've started a YouTube channel, it's only... What's it? What's it called? tell people about this? It's called'Our Moment of calm'. Yeah, that's it's, well that's its provisional title and you can you, know subject to change. Yeah. Yeah, it's just on, yeah, it's just on YouTube, it seems to be seems to be picking up a little bit traction, people seem to be kind of quite interested in... What would it be? I'm not giving it much of a push, but... And if I went there and listened, what would I find? You'd find two hour deep sleep relaxation, music videos with everything from that to kind of too many kind of like freshen up your day and you know, so tranquil ,Electronic kind of sound scape. And that'd called a moment of calm?'Our moment of calm' because we'll put this, this goes out both as an audible podcast, it also goes on YouTube we'll put the link there for people to kind of have a look and see and if people want to find you and follow you and find out when you releasing new stuff if they're thinking, you know, if they come off this thing go I'm gonna listen to this guy and they go wow, I love what he does, because I would recommend anybody to go and listen to you when you were talking about singing for the first time in people stopped. I love just to hear you sing and play guitar because it's amazing and you know, my wife Emma feels exactly exactly, exactly the same definite, definitely what you're born to do mate, definitely, so if somebody goes and listens to that goes, yep, I want to want to follow this guy and and get the News and Views. How does somebody find you? Where would you like them to go? I mean, well, I'm easy enough to find I'm relatively terrible on my socials. But if you go Richard Bedford music Facebook I think, I think this my experience under that you can find me on Twitter on the Richard Bedford, Instagram under Richard Bedford music, I think. Yeah, great. Yeah, I'll have to say yeah, I think that's yeah, I think that's all. If people type Richard Bedford you come straight to the top of Google. I absolutely, I absolutely know that. I didn't always though there's a Canadian Prime Minister who used to top me. But I've ahhh ... I've pushed him down, to the bowls of history There you go. So, it's, it's always great to you. It's always good to see you, thank you so much for for coming on and ummm... we catch up soon anyway, and I'm sure I'm sure we'll have another conversation where we go. Hmm, we need to we need to record that more, and so I'm sure there'll be another, you'll come back on at some point, won't you tell us what you're up to. Yeah, I'd love I'd love to you know, this was a kind of yeah, preview. Wow.. preview I like it. They'll be a sequel. Yeah, see for the sequel. Cheers. See you soon. Part 2! See you later.. Thanks for listening to the resilience development podcast. I recommend you check Richard's YouTube channel by searching for'Our moment of calm' or seek him out on the socials have a listen to his fantastic voice and lyrics and I'll see you in a fortnight.