Ep. 3 - From Hearing Metal in Pakistan to Studying Law in the States: Music as a Trusted Co-Pilot

In this episode, we share co-host Raza’s six song story, thus finishing out these episodes introducing you to our hosts. We wouldn’t ask our guests to do anything we wouldn’t do ourselves. Check out Raza’s stories of growing up in Pakistan, his audiophile Dad and family members exposing him to a diverse set list of artists and genres. Learn about his musical journey arriving in the US at 10 years old ready to consume all the entertainment he imagined would be available to him in the States. From Guns ‘N’ Roses, Type O Negative, and Red Hot Chili Peppers to Maroon 5 and Foster the People, Raza shares stories of joy and excitement as well as struggle and overcoming, with a little Pirate Metal thrown in. Finally, Raza shares his own musical project, Solamente, and the song he wrote for his children, The Offspring. Pull up a folding chair, grab a drink, find a spot around the fire, and enjoy the conversation and community.

Follow your hosts David, Raza, and Carolina every week as they embark on an epic adventure to find the songs that are stuck to us like audible tattoos to tell the story of who we are and where we’ve been. If you have someone whose life you’d like to hear in 6 songs, let us know!

WHO WE ARE

DAVID: Creator & Host @ALifeinSixSongs

Drummer | Educator | Philosopher | Combat Veteran | PTSD Advocate 

CAROLINA: Co-Host @ALifeinSixSongs

Storyteller | Head of Learning & Development Services @ReadySet

RAZA: Co-Host @ALifeinSixSongs

Guitarist | Lawyer | Solo Project @Solamente.Band

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Click Here to view show transcript (click Transcript tab on page)

RESOURCES & LINKS

• Liked songs from this life story? Check out A Life in Six Songs playlist on Apple Music and Spotify
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• Subscribe to our YouTube channel 
• Don’t keep us all to yourself! Share our podcast with your people!
• Reach out to us at alifeinsixsongspodcast@gmail.com

Transcript

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A Life in Six Songs Welcome

Raza 0:00

When the idea of immigrating to the states came up , it was all oh , the land of music . You know it's like the possibilities are going to be endless . You know it wasn't . You know it's going to be a struggle , or the finances and sort of the real life stuff . It was just like great , I get to watch Night Rider all the time .

David 0:56

Hey everyone , welcome to A Life in Six Songs . I'm your host , David Reese , and I'm joined by my co-host , Carolina , who also happens to be my wife and my childhood friend , Raza . For those of you new to the podcast , each week we embark on an epic adventure to find the songs that are stuck to us like audible tattoos , that tell the story of who we are and where we've been . It's a life story told through six songs . Let's go have a listen together .

David 1:24

So for this episode , we're in our third episode and you know we've kicked this podcast off by learning more about myself in the first episode , Carolina in the last episode , and so this week we're going to round out our stories of our hosts and we're going to tell Raza's story . So Raza is a lawyer and veteran advocate . He started , he's a musician and started by playing drums in high school and then switched after high school to guitar . I wanted to write you know more music and be able to kind of compose in that way , and has a solo project out there that we'll get in and talk more about . So lamente . And so we're just , you know , happy to have them on today and share this story , so yay .

Raza 2:21

Thank you , thank you , thank you .

Carolina 2:24

Welcome to your own show , Raza . Welcome to your own show yes , yes , love this team .

David 2:30

Love the team . That's right . Here we go , so so to kick us off before we get into your six songs , why don't you tell us you know a little bit about your earliest music memory ?

Raza 2:46

Yeah , you know , as you know , I mean I've been sort of a lifelong fan of music in general and maybe some of the heavier stuff you know and that . That . That goes back to all the way back to you know my earliest memory , which is probably maybe three , four , five years old . I was born in Pakistan . I grew up in Pakistan . My family was always there , was music always playing in the house . We had sort of an appreciation for art and music and all the sort of you know humanities and and politics and things like that in the house . And yeah , my earliest memory is my dad blasting . You know Pink Floyd in the house . You know another brick in the wall , the Star Wars soundtrack . You know a lot of the local sort of folk . You know Pakistani music as well .

Raza 3:39

The Beatles I mean the Beatles references were , were going on all the time and then he would talk about things like to this day actually , my dad is . I realized , you know , many years later they were . You know there's a term for that . He's a , he's an audiophile . He loved talking about music and sort of like the engineering and physics of the science of music , how sound works and the difference between you know mono and stereo and surround sound and and you know when you hear certain things in certain spaces .

Raza 4:13

So yeah , there was an appreciation of music at a very early age and yeah , and that I think you know I sort of learned about , about that and became a part of me and it's been ever since . I mean we immigrated to the States when I was about 10 years old and you know my , my , my tastes in music might have changed and shifted . I'm much more of a filter now and I and I still appreciate music and nerd out on music and now we can talk about , you know , sort of technical aspects of music and time signatures and tempos and things like that . But yeah , earliest memory is just music in the house all the time .

Carolina 4:51

That's so cool . When your childhood is filled with with those kinds of things . We don't realize how , how much it leaves an impression on us and at the time you probably didn't know you'd be immigrating to a whole other country and you know like what that would open up for you to .

Raza 5:08

Yeah yeah . And one of the I remember I mean probably closer to this was like in the late 80s I would say 8788 or so when the idea of immigrating to the States came up . It was all oh , the land of music . You know it's like the possibilities are going to be endless . You know it wasn't . You know it's going to be a struggle , or the finances and sort of the real life stuff .

Raza 5:30

It was just like great . I get to watch Night Rider all the time and you know all this stuff that you see on TV that America is known for . Mtv was big back then and yeah yeah , no , it was , it was . It was all about the entertainment and pop culture and getting closer to it .

David 5:49

Nice . Did you know that , like your , your home life had this special quality to it of being , just , you know , surrounded by music ? Like did you did ? You know did . Were you aware it was a thing ? Because a lot of times when you're young You're not aware that your household is sort of anything special , because you're not sure exactly what goes on another , so you just assume like well , we do this and so yeah , doesn't everybody do it like this . Were you aware that this was something like special ?

Raza 6:19

Oh my gosh , yeah , no , such a great question that this is stuff that I've been sort of grappling with actually as an adult now , like you know , like after you get married and after you have your own household and things like that I had at the time I thought that was the norm . It was the norm that you live in an amazing big , you know multi story house and you have people with multiple vehicles , like the equivalent of being bougie , right , that's , we weren't sort of bougie in Pakistan . I was a city , you know . I grew up in the city in the first place . It's the second largest city in Pakistan , which is figured like Chicago , you know , like New York , but Chicago .

Raza 7:00

And and , yeah , you know , we would sort of have intellectual debates about everything from politics to to to , you know , welfare states and socialism and capitalism and things like that . And there was the 80s were big . There's a lot of turmoil going on in the world , obviously . We all sorts of stuff going on , but so those types of debates I thought were the norm . I didn't realize that no , this we're a very , very small , small minority of people that are that , that have . You know that have privilege is the right word . We weren't like , we weren't like super wealthy , but you know , we had . We had a home and we had the basic amenities and things like that .

Raza 7:43

So , yeah , I didn't realize that even that is an exception , because Pakistan is a country of about 200 million people and the vast majority , you know , unfortunately , are they're not doing well . It's an agricultural based economy and there's tons of illiteracy and tons of social problems and things like that and we're actually very lucky . So I realized that and then , you know , I definitely have been grateful for that , but at the time had no idea , had no idea that going to polo clubs was the norm and you know hanging out and and you know talking shop about , you know the various types of teas and and the cuts of meat , you know . But yeah , that's , that's that's how we grew up . Our real struggle started when we came to America . Actually , then we realized , oh crap , well , electricity is cheap , but you know the salami not so much .

David 8:40

Let's get into your , into your songs . That very much sort of sets the stage for us . And so you know , for for your first song , we've talked about how you know , growing up in a house that just so appreciates music , and it's just , it's just there and you can , you can put yourself there

Immigrating to the States and The Influence of Guns 'N' Roses

David 9:02

. You know , tell us , tell us about a time and a song that you know when you hear it transports you instantly to a specific time or place .

Raza 9:14

Yeah , so you know , we , we immigrated to the states . You know we flew into JFK and then the year was 1990 . You know , we had our sort of green cards in hand , all the promise of America , you know , before us and from New York . Very , very quickly after that we moved to South Florida and I just remember it being hot and more hot .

Raza 9:41

You know you're trying to find your way in school and making friends and things like that and fast forward , I would say maybe six months or so . Summer of 1991 Terminator 2 comes out . It's the biggest movie you know at the time , revolutionary , all kinds of great like sci fi , and you know action and violence and things like that . I had no idea about the movie other than you know watching MTV is this amazing drum fill happens and this guy's screeching voice you know blaring through my TV and it's guns and roses and the song is you Could Be Mine and that is the soundtrack of us arriving in America . As far as I'm concerned , Nice , let's take a listen .

Carolina 11:03

Yeah .

Raza 11:11

Yep , I hear that and I hear you know Fort Lauderdale , florida , terminator 2 . I watched it like three or four times in the theaters with my friends and and , yeah , love that song and that . That . That that song was was sort of the transition into just a lifelong love of guns and roses .

Raza 11:32

And the funny thing is is that I heard heavy music , metal in in Pakistan through some of my cousins and stuff like that . You know some stuff you just gravitate toward and oh , the cousins , yep , oh man , yeah , you know , and it's like I heard run the MC through them , I heard salt and pepper through them , I heard you know local , you know Pakistani music through them . But then the stuff that just happened to resonate was like drums , guitars , bass and really loud , screamy vocals . I don't know why . That's just that's what I really idol I heard , you know quite right was I heard quite riot in 84 . I mean , I'm four years old . I'm like this is amazing and so when we move , when we move to the States , you know it was all like MC Hammer and vanilla ice .

Raza 12:22

I'm just like , okay , where is this the stuff that I remember that I'm like , you know , I'm kind of yearning for you know where's the guitars and drums and all the heavy , heavy shit ? And then this was it . And then and and that was like , oh , alright , so it's called hard rock , guns and roses . And then , like sort of the floodgates open at that point of heavy music and it also it like filtered out . A lot of people in my life at the time was just like , oh , if you like guns and roses and you know the foul mouthed axle rose and all that , we want anything to do with you . I was like good , I don't want anything to do with you either . I was just about to ask how did you view that ?

David 13:01

because it's sort of like , I think , at that age , right when middle school , high school age , you're so it's this weird combination of wanting to stand out and be your own person but also not be isolated , right ? So it's like I don't want to be you , but I also don't want to be just alone . I got to find my people and I feel like , yeah , like you said , the music we listen to , the way we dress , helps us identify who's our , who's our people .

Raza 13:29

Yeah , yeah , no , totally , especially at that age , right , I mean , I was what , 1112 , when , when , when , when , when GNR was was when when this song came , I was like 11 years old , late middle school I think , and yeah , I don't know . I think it was one of those things where I'm I was okay , I was okay being myself in the way that , look , if , if , if guns and roses is wrong . I don't want to be right . It was kind of one of those things .

David 14:05

So it's like and that's got to be on a t shirt trademark . That's coming to t shirt .

Raza 14:13

Yeah , I think that you know , it was kind of a way to filter out certain people and I never judged other people and I was just like you know , dude , listen to whatever you listen to . This is the stuff that I like , and I just happened to get in touch with people that were also into that , you know , and then you just kind of make friends . That was some people . Just , I knew that I wasn't an extreme either way , but it's just like , dude , it's on MTV , it's like the most popular band , it can't be that bad . I mean , come on , you know , and then you realize , oh , people that have really extreme views about this type of music , whether it's the lyrics or whatever else , or , or you know people from my part of the world . You realize , okay , look , if you're taking it , it's entertainment . If you're taking it that seriously , then again it's you , do you ? I'm okay enjoying the stuff that I like enjoying . So it made me happy .

Carolina 15:06

Yeah , I think like such an interesting thing about that particular time those like late 80s , early 90s and sort of the the advent of music videos , was this like merge between music videos and movies that you don't really see anymore , so like a mute . If if a song was on the score to a movie , that music video would have like a ton of clips from the movie . Music videos today seem to be more like detached from whatever possible score and I remember watching the music video for this and the CGI . That was like coming of age with Terminator two , you know when , when the other robot melts into that like that metallic , I was like what the fuck did they just ? How did they do that ?

Carolina 15:52

right , yeah a few years ago , david and I watched Terminator one again , just for kicks , and it was hilarious , like the CGI , like that is terrible . But by the time Terminator two came out like it was wicked , impressive and then put guns and roses behind it and like it was just like one of those like epic blockbuster movie type with all the music and everything that comes with it . So it's hard to hate the song and not like you know associate it with the film that it's in .

Raza 16:23

And that music video in particular was amazing too , because Arnold's in the video , so it's like a storyline within the storyline , which is that so he shows up at a guns and roses concert . You know , hunting down you know , or protecting , depending on whatever you know right right the role right , but he's so he's hunting down the band .

Raza 16:44

Basically , you know , throughout the song and they've got like concert footage like interspersed , and then at the very end there's a cameo where it's like Terminator and he finds support . Basically , he finds the band and he's sort of analyzing them and you can see like his Terminator , I you know , identifying Axl Rose and Slash and Matt Sorum , and there's like a cheeky factor as well . Is there's really just you know , yeah , it was a good time , the 90s were great .

Carolina 17:14

It was a good time . I think the kid in the movie was roughly like our age or older to and kind of a punk rebel and like Linda Hamilton from a woman in movies perspective , how like strong she was and fit and like this like fighter it was , it was . It was all really bad it was epic , all of it Music included .

Raza 17:37

My dad , so you know , speaking of music in the households again . So loved the movie and it's like , dad it's , it's got violence , like foul language and all this other stuff is like , yeah , but the music production was bloody amazing . When you hear the Harley Davidson , it goes from the right to the left . It is studio for it . I loved it . I loved it , you know .

Carolina 18:01

And he had to love it .

Raza 18:04

Oh man , he's still to this day , you know , you know kind of love him . He's , he's got , he's an audiophile he just loves . You know the way music and I think it's more even not even music but sound , how sound travels and and you know , the bass has its place and the trebles have their place and the mids have their place , and so , yeah , I definitely got a lot of that super nerdy stuff from him . So , yeah , that's awesome .

David 18:30

When do we have in your dad on the show then ?

Raza 18:33

Oh yeah , say the word , I'll make some phone calls .

David 18:37

That'd be awesome .

Carolina 18:38

Yeah .

David 18:40

All right . So you know that that whole discussion , just you know , illustrates how the power of music to kind of put us right back in a place , right , just immediately , before we even aware of it , right , you hear the drums kicking on that song and boom , you know exactly where you are and all of that you

The Difficult High School Years and the Solace Found in Red Hot Chili Peppers

David 19:05

know . For , for this next song and question , you know , tell us , tell us a story about a time where you know a song was just intimately connected with a challenging time or difficult situation .

Raza 19:24

Yeah , well , you know I think I would say probably you know the typical immigrant story , which is that you know you come to America and then this land of opportunity and have all these sort of expectations and and and anyway , I mean the stuff that you think will happen ends up not happening . Or there's challenges and you know whether this challenges with families and things like that , you know had family members that passed away and you know , you know , you know you're not going to be able to do that . You know we had our own sort of internal , you know struggles and you know finding your place and financial and the typical , again , immigrant stuff . You know working parents and and and then for me , myself and my siblings , it's like the teen years and you enter high school and it's an awkward time . It's you're figuring out yourself , you're figuring out your , your sort of , you know , social group and also figuring out that , well , you know , not everyone likes guns and roses and yeah so .

Raza 20:22

So around that time the chili peppers were on their , the breakthrough was blood sugar , sex and magic . I purposely tried to stay away from it because I knew that it was really , really popular and and but . But then , right after that , their follow up was with Dave Navarro on guitar . John Frichonti left or was fired or whatever , and their next album was called One Hot Minute and , almost as an F ? You to everyone who liked the first album , was just like . I'm going to really enjoy this album and the song that really did it for me was Aeroplane and for some reason it's not their biggest song . It's definitely not one of their like top five , top 10 , even , but I loved it and yeah , that was a . I always reminds me of that time .

David 21:11

Yeah , let's take a listen and we'll chat some more about the difficulties on the other side . Yeah , yeah , yeah , I think that song works well for a potential like kind of theme song , for you know this podcast , right , music is my aeroplane . Right , we're talking about how I can take you somewhere , and so where does this song take you ?

Raza 22:07

Yeah , I'm . I'm instantly transported , you know , to the high school years . You know , those are , those are , they're always like sort of . I guess that's what coming of age is right . It's a high school years is coming of age . You're in this weird spot between your minors . You're not really an adult . You're changing physically . You know we change and you know , and there's there's a lot of in our household . I mean , you know , education was always that was sort of the reason for coming to America is like you don't come here to swim around , come here to , you know , to become something . It's a land of opportunity and your opportunity lies by the way of you getting into a good college Because you know those types of . I don't think we ever use the word stress in the house because it's like what is stress ?

Carolina 23:02

Yeah .

Raza 23:03

But yeah , it's like I'll show you real stress , you know . But yeah , so high school was difficult and it was a difficult four years and this song to me just kind of epitomizes that . I think I realized much later that , oh crap , yeah , my life is spiked with pain and music is my airplane . Like it's so simple . I don't even think I put it together at the time , but yeah , I . This was my favorite chili peppers album , still is , and the song just transports me to , you know , the 93 to 97 years .

Carolina 23:39

Super cool . I love the chili peppers . It was funny you were talking about , like , not liking them because they were popular or , like you know , their second album and I remember also , you know , coming from an immigrant family no cursing loud at my house or anything but suck my kiss off of their first album , it felt such like a greedy , like indulgent pleasure to sing that song , you know , yeah , yeah , yeah and I still listen to .

Raza 24:07

so now I'm much more sort of , you know , I care less about you know the popularity contest or whatever . And I mean just from a production standpoint , not to get super nerdy , but oh my God , rick Rubin killed it , killed it on , on , on , on the like the drums . Chad Smith's drumming wouldn't be the same without Rick Rubin's production Of that drumming . And yeah , I mean , the band was on fire , but I just like , I'm like I couldn't bring myself to admit that . I really like you know , under the bridge and give it away and like the video for give it away to , oh my God , but then , yeah , but then fast forward a couple years when , when one hot minute came out , it was just , it was slightly heavier . And then I realized that , oh , they have another guitarist , dave Navarro , and he came from . He came from more of a rock school than a , than a funk , funk background , which is ironically the reason why they got rid of them . I was like man , I like , I like the heavier chili peppers , but that's okay , yeah .

Carolina 25:08

Yeah , I also remember thinking like a lot of rock bands and you know musicians that you follow are cool , right , they're famous , they do this thing , they create music for a living . And I remember feeling like the chili peppers , in particular , were just super cool , like Anthony Kitas and the way Flea would play like I don't think I ever thought about the bass before , you know , before I watched somebody like him like tear it up on stage and then Anthony Kitas and point break yes , not associate them . So I just thought like individually too , as as as people they were all like just super interesting and cool , that West Coast thing that we don't get in South Florida .

David 25:52

Right , yeah , that Southern California vibe , la vibe , for sure , for sure .

Raza 25:59

Remember years later watching there I think it was on VH1 that behind behind the music , one of the documentaries and Flea going dude , we were LA to the bone . I'm like oh yeah , I get it .

David 26:11

Yeah , yeah , you just kind of like . You look at them and you're like yep .

David 26:16

Yep and that is that for sure , for sure .

David 26:19

Yeah , I think it's so interesting with this song and where it , where it places you and kind of talking about the struggles of high school and and even with the guns and roses side of , like you know , we use music and things to kind of define our identity in ways who's my group , and inevitably that means who's not in my group , right , and that sort of division .

David 26:41

And in a lot of ways , it's almost like I feel like you know , the kind of one of the motivations behind doing this podcast is to kind of get away from the well , if I like this , if I like rush , like I can't talk to you because you like Beyonce or something like that , right , and it's sort of we grow up in that that it's like , oh , if you like that , you're somehow , you know , different than me and it's . It just feels so much more like there's more in common there . Like you may not like the guns and roses , you may not like the Beyonce , but again , that experience , right , everybody going through high school was experiencing that thing of like what bands do you like ? What music do you like ? Are you into music or are you not really into music ? Are you more into something else , and so again , I think it's just another one of those examples where you know adulthood is working out things from your childhood .

Carolina 27:32

Yeah .

Raza 27:33

You know , I don't know if it's a South Florida thing or what , because I've I've definitely had conversations with other people and and , and you know , when they talk about their high school years they're like they're exactly as you're saying , that if you're , you know , if you're a fan of band A , then you by default are not fans of bands . You know , b through Z or whatever . The case might be right , but I always found that I think maybe I don't know if it's South Florida thing if it was our school in particular , we went to plantation high school and we were the marching kernels and but . But I always thought that I think that our population was generally really forgiving and open , because I remember I remember being friends with people who really liked my kind of music , but also my best friends were . They appreciated what I liked , but they weren't , like you know , as crazy about the same bands . They weren't other than beastie boys or you know whatever else , the hip hop and , and that was okay and but .

Raza 28:33

But as an adult I've had the same conversations with other people and they described their high school years kind of like you were saying that no , if you weren't you know this band , then by default you were not into that other band that you would get beat up or you know whatever . So I don't know . I think maybe shout out to South Florida because our it was such a melting pot and I know for a fact our school was very very diverse , yeah , and I think like you know from from from you guys's interviews as well .

Raza 29:01

it's like you know , I mean , dave , you love , I didn't , I didn't realize you love hip hop as much as you did , just based on your 90s . You know references along with Rush and that's okay and and I think that's really sort of it speaks a lot to where we grew up and I'm really kind of in hindsight , I'm really appreciative of it and and and I'm glad that we were really were so , because a lot of people had it , you know , super worse than they had their sort of pigeonhole area .

Raza 29:28

Yeah , yeah I don't think we were like that .

Carolina 29:31

Yeah , you know what that's bringing up for me and we've had , for some reason I've had a couple conversations this week about generations . Yeah , what generation we fall in . You know my mom is actually visiting right now . We're explaining to her that . You know she's a baby boomer . You know that kind of stuff . Our kiddos , gen Z , and I was explaining to some other folks what a zenial is , the , the , that little micro generation of what is it ? David 1970 .

David 29:57

I think it's 1977 to 1982 . To 1982 .

Carolina 30:00

Birth years and our specific relationship with , like analog versus technology and things like that , and it's almost making me wonder if it's a generational thing that , like we were being introduced to all kinds of new things at that coming of age time , grunge as a new genre of music , technology , cds , like maybe we were , just as a consequence of that environment , more open minded .

David 30:30

I went to a .

Carolina 30:31

Catholic high school . So not not a large school like like Plantation Ones . I went to St Thomas Aquinas , but but you know , even there too not a lot of like pigeonholing around music . Our parties were pretty diverse , like yeah , no , it was . It was a little more open minded than I think . I hear about other generations . I'm wondering if it's that .

Raza 30:55

Mm . Hmm , we definitely have access to more information than anybody else Right .

Raza 31:04

Yeah , I don't know . It's like that force gump reference , right . It's like I don't know if it's if it's destiny or if it's or if it's intentional , but but then the force comp answers that it's a little bit of both . It's like I don't know why Things happen the way they do , but you know it could be a mix of of , you know , intent and also just completely random stuff . Why did the feather fall right on his , on his shoe ? Oh my God , so many 92 references .

David 31:43

Putting us , putting us right there in in the Zennial Zennial .

Raza 31:49

Zennial , yeah , zennial .

David 31:52

And then Gen X and millennial together .

Carolina 31:54

It's the overlap .

David 31:56

Yeah , so speaking of perspectives and different perspectives , and accepting them and embracing them or whatnot , you know

Exploring Different Perspectives Through Type O Negative

David 32:07

what is ? A song that you know exposed you to just a new perspective .

Raza 32:16

So , from a musical perspective , when I heard , I was always , again , I was into sort of heavyish music . I wasn't into like the extreme stuff and all that you know , sort of church burning , satanic , satanic , whatever , but I liked heavy music but something was missing . And when I heard typo negative , that changed everything from a musical nerding out perspective , because their songs were long and they were dark , which is essential , but also they just went places . I understood what a musical composition is . It's like you start here and it goes there and it ends somewhere else . And their iconic , you know , Black Number One was my introduction to that whole world .

David 33:11

Nice , let's listen in .

Carolina 33:42

For which he's dressed . A perfume smells like burning leaves . Every day is all alone .

David 34:09

Yeah , you just hear his voice and it's just like like I don't know how you hear that voice and aren't just like whoa , like that's something .

Raza 34:22

Yeah , you know , again back in the days of MTV , if you watched the video , the music video for this song , it was like , oh my , okay , whoa , whoa , like time out , right , yeah , it was just it was . It was like , okay , this , this is just something completely different and and it's dark and it's haunting and it's the music videos . Black and white is all just like vampire shit going on , Long black hair on like the men and the women and just darkness . But then there's melody and there's keyboards and there's like harpsichords and there's cobwebs in the video and it just dude , it just , you know , life changing .

Raza 35:07

I was , I was 13 at the time , so I couldn't buy the album because it had explicit , you know , content in it , so you know . So I somehow I got , I got a copy of it and then you realize , oh my God , there's this thing called a radio edit which takes an 11 minute song and then , you know , you kind of summarize it back down to like three and a half , four minutes . So I started nerding out on that stuff . I'm like , wow , you're allowed to have different versions of a song . How is this possible ? And then I remember someone mentioned , oh well , you know , the doors . You know , they're like my fire is like a 12 minute song and they basically told the radio station that if you don't play the full song , I'm not going to . You have to play the full song or nothing . And obviously , like my fire is one of the biggest . You know , that's one of the most popular songs ever and yeah .

Raza 35:59

So , yeah , I just completely changed my perspective on music . What's what is possible in a musical composition ? And , yeah , for many , many years , I mean until you know so , peter Steele , the singer , died a few years ago and that was effectively , you know , the end of typo . But , yeah , man , love , love what they did there . And there's still , you know , I think people hear them now and go , oh wow , how did I miss this ? They're really , you know , they're like an iconic band and for me it just just the whole composition aspect , just and that . That that's what kind of inspired me to start paying attention to production and writing and it's what wanted me to start writing my own stuff . I'm like , well , if they can do it , so can I At least try it , because it's not metallic , it's not that difficult to play their stuff , but , but , but it's , there's more , there's more atmosphere to it , so it's cool .

Carolina 36:59

I think so If you haven't watched any of our other episodes . I'm not the heavy metal fan of the three of the hosts , although I strongly think now that you two are going to like steer me that direction over time .

Carolina 37:17

I'm sure you do so . In researching your episode , raza , I watched the music video and I was like I was blown away by the details of it all . Like his voice and I think you know first of all the band name , right , like clear reference to blood , and then the video . It's not like if this guy , if there was an audio personification of , like Dracula , it is his voice . But I was also probably like vampire victim . I was like drawn in . I'm like staring the sound with which they engineered it . You can hear him breathing . You can hear him like taking breaths and opening his mouth . Like it just feels like a really primal experience listening to it and I was like fully sucked in to the whole song . It was really , really cool .

Raza 38:15

Yeah , thank you , thank you , yeah , no , I appreciate that , that you appreciate all of that .

Raza 38:21

And obviously , you know , I mean it's when you take a step back and look at it as as entertainment . All of that is intentional , right , I mean they were purposely playing , playing up that imagery , and I mean full disclosure . Like the guy , he was like six foot seven , you know , fangs and and he had the voice . But then you realize , oh God , like these , these , these are like four , four dudes from Brooklyn , it's , you know , it's like I've hung out with with , with the drummer , johnny , and I've met the keyboard player and passing , just , you know , as a complete fanboy to this day , I love this man , I love what they did , yeah , yeah , and you know , yeah , but Peter , you know he's a brilliant composer of music .

Raza 39:14

The lyrics were amazing . I remember there was , I remember watching an interview with , I think it was , trent Resner , and someone asked hey , so what are your goals for the next , for the lyrics , for the next album , whichever album they were talking about , and he goes yeah , my goal is to , is to not start the next song with a word I , like I did this , I am this , I'm feeling down and I'm , you know , whatever it is , and I don't think any of typo's lyrics started with the word I . It's always either a story or it's like to put things into it , it's like relatable and they , they . There's like a scene that happens .

Raza 39:51

There's a lot of she's so there's a lot of songs about a she but or several . You know she's , but yeah , it was just . I love that there's a lot of thought put into it and then it's great to hear that you , that you , that you're able to catch on to this , you know , and you , you're watching . You're watching the black number one video , literally 30 years after it was made . I mean , this song came out in , I think , 93 or so . And yeah , no , these guys are epic and I missed them dearly .

Carolina 40:24

Yeah , the video doesn't have , like it's not a multimillion dollar production and it's black and white , is very , very simple . But his voice is just like so haunting , like it makes the the hairs on your arms kind of . You look like you're like witnessing this , like vampiric , predatory , like circumstance , and you're like should I be watching ? You're drawing , I don't know like right , but I can't stop watching at the same time .

David 40:57

Yeah , no , super cool , which , like you , like you said , carolina , it's like he . He very much personifies what you think of when you think of Dracula . Right , every time Dracula is portrayed , it's in this enticing way . He's like evil or , you know , dark , whatever you , whatever word you want to describe it , but you can't get away from him , right , you're drawn into it in this way , and so , yeah , I feel the same way about it . You're just like whoa .

Raza 41:27

And the funny thing is is that you know these guys are actually hilarious , like if you , if you listen to their interviews , it's , it's completely , it's like obviously you know it's , it's it's New York humor and deadpan , you know , delivery and but completely self deprecating , completely normal , downplayed their own success and and honestly , like I was in full , you know , like fanboy mode for many , many years , especially like in high school and college and stuff , but but it was cool to see a band operate in that way . So don't take yourself that seriously , because the other side was . Then you had like the Marilyn Mansons and some of the other folks that were that started believing their own . You know narrative is just like you know , do your job , go play a show , do it well and then go home and and and that's to me that was there one of those bands that you really just the kind of the kept it real , like New York , real .

Carolina 42:27

I love that .

Carolina 42:29

So , I love that you bring up like the fact that in you know this is a persona , there they're on stage sort of presence or their musical presence , but in like real life they're like funny and don't each other themselves too seriously . Because I could not help , while listening to his voice and sort of the subject matter of the music video and everything , to think about the movie for getting Sarah Marshall and the the Dracula inspired rock puppet opera that Jason Segal's character makes . But the voice that he sings in the rock opera is kind of like similar and I ever meet Jason Segal . I'd love to ask him like that was an inspiration for that , because it was eerily . I could like see it in the back of my mind when I was listening to the song .

Raza 43:19

As you're saying that I'm thinking of the Count from Sesame Street , because I remember you had a Sesame Street reference I want to say your blood One , two , three , right and so like at the same time while I was watching the music video .

Carolina 43:40

But now you're telling me this is like 30 years ago . I'm like , are you poking fun at like the ?

David 43:45

but no , this looks like Dude what they are trying to pair it . Yeah , yeah .

Carolina 43:51

I guess I would just tell people to go watch the video .

David 43:55

That's the OG it was an experience . Definitely , definitely , I think . Before we move on to our next song , just one final thing in kind of you know bringing this sort of you know goth music and then grunge and sort of you have you know two movies , you have the crow and you have singles right that come out .

David 44:16

And it's like the crow is like your you know Halloween kind of you know goth , that whole . It's dark , it rains the whole time . There's even a song in there that's like it can't rain all the time , you know , and that vibe . And then you have singles which is like straight up grunge Seattle , I mean Pearl Jam and are in it , you know , and whatnot , and so it's just interesting . I don't even have a take because I appreciate both of my . I really dug both of them . It was tough to kind of like I'm kind of in the middle on them , probably leaning a little bit more to the grunge side of things . But I just think it's so interesting to see we're talking about sort of how you can define your place in your people and stuff . And I feel like that's a question you could ask them when it's like the crow or singles , which which is your , which is your vibe , you know , or something like that .

Raza 45:06

So I'm gonna crow all the way .

David 45:15

I was just gonna say I'm like Raza , you're definitely crowed .

Carolina 45:17

Carolina , you're definitely singles , and I'm right there in the middle .

David 45:19

So we've got it all all represented .

Raza 45:22

Well , here let's so the difference . So , speaking of typo , around that time that movie I know what you did last summer came out . The opening sequence opens with a typo well , a typo cover of another song , but the voice and the guitars and everything is there . So I definitely I want to go see that movie just for that , just just to enjoy . You know their the track and I made it have shed a little tear like my boys made it .

Carolina 45:58

Yeah , yeah , made it in a movie yeah , that's awesome , that's , that's great .

David 46:03

So you know , we talked about how music can put us to a specific point . It's there when we struggle , it can give us a new perspective . But music can also be there when just things are great , right , and it's just kind of this soundtrack that attaches to these , these great moments , and so ,

Perfect Moments from the Houston Years and Maroon 5

David 46:22

you know , tell us , tell us about a song , that that is part of one of those perfect moments for you .

Raza 46:29

Yeah , I was trying to think you know what's I mean you can define , you know perfect moments , so many different ways , but but but to me . So there's a high school years as a college years , which is basically a blur , and then , and then I went to . I went to law school in Houston , got engaged and I remember loving it . I remember you know my fiance at the time now my wife , been married for Just just just shy of 17 years now .

Carolina 47:04

But but thank you , thank you .

Raza 47:08

But I remember being in Houston , either having just finished law school or just being on the tail end of it , and it seemed like at the time that , okay , I know exactly what's going to happen in the next few years . You know building a career and doing this law thing and you know starting a family etc . Etc . All the promise of all those things that you know , as an immigrant , you think about . We're like just right there at the cusp and those Dad , yeah , exactly . So always kind of Are Houston years always remind me of that . Everything that's possible . The city was amazing . It was so . You know , you guys know so .

Raza 47:48

We grew up in South Florida , went to , went to college in a small , small college town . Houston is a proper city , I mean it is . You know skyscrapers and and heat and wealth and crime and everything . You know it's , it's , it's , it's and we made . You know we had a , we had a blast , that we had a really good time . We love the city still do , actually , anyway . So in those around that time I was introduced I don't know how , but maybe on the radio or it may have been through my wife , but she she said , hey , listen to the song this is . It's been called maroon five and my first instinct was Maroon five .

David 48:26

What , yeah All right , let's listen in .

Raza 49:12

Yeah , years later , I realized this is like the ultimate fuck you song . And and I'm like , wait as , and I'm sure I asked my wife I look at why would you introduce me to this ? What are you trying to say , baby ? What are you trying to say ? And I want those people , like I always pay attention to the lyrics , but for me , the music , the vibe of this song reminds me of just things seemingly being perfect , and driving around enjoying the skyline in Houston , having ridiculous you know Curries and Thai food and and the best tacos you know ever , because , come on , that Houston has the best tacos . What are you talking about ? Yeah , just things seem to be perfect , and this song to me encapsulates that .

Carolina 50:01

That time , so fun , like maroon five is just fun , and I think I think it's funny the way you kind of teed it up but like it was like presented to you and you're like , come on , like not maroon five . You know if you , I think , as a lover of music and you know we just came off of like typo negative right , so like dark , deep , introspective , like you know , all this kind of music and then you find yourself like bopping to . Maroon five reminds me of I don't know if you can help me David was . It was an episode of the office when the the character Angela , who's just like a curmudgeon , like hates , everything , were they , and there was like some sort of party that she did not want to go to . But she ended up digging the music and they , the camera pans down to her foot and she's kind of like she's have .

David 50:50

She's actually I think that was the Cafe disco episode after Michael Scott paper company fails and they have the thing down there and she's kind of sitting there and she wants to clean up and Michael Scott's like , no , no , no , this is a party , you gotta have fun . She's like why wouldn't you let me have any fun ? That's what you want to do . But yeah , then she's sitting there and she starts , you know , foot starts going .

Carolina 51:12

Yeah , yeah , that's what I basically think about like this , like reluctance , reluctance to the music , but then you're like Damn it , it's catchy , like I'm enjoying myself .

Raza 51:22

Yeah , yeah , no , it was , the music definitely got me . I love and I still , to this day , like again , you know , I'm transported back to the drum beat , the . You know you're four on the floor and yeah , yeah , we ended up seeing maroon five actually . So every year Houston has the rodeo , the Houston rodeo , but it's not just a rodeo , it's like it's , it's like , I think , like a week-long festival and they have , you know , like , beyonce's played the rodeo and and Alicia Keys has played the rodeo and it's a massive like festival music . You know food , All things , you know Texan and Houston and everything , and so any anyways , around that year , I'm sure because of the song , we ended up going to the Houston rodeo and I loved it . We had such a good time and maroon five was the main act . And I'll never forget Adam Levine . He's like , well , y'all , you know , obviously he's from California , he does not have a Texan accent , texas accent .

Carolina 52:24

Oh , like y'all , y'all , I .

Raza 52:26

Even got me a belt buckle and he did like this weird , like shimmy thing with his belt buckle . I was like , oh fucking hate maroon five . But damn it , that's so is great . But yeah , totally , I Think it's like .

David 52:41

I think there's a lot of music out there for folks that have this quality to it where you secretly like it but you don't want to admit to people you like it . It's kind of like what they say about riding a scooter you know there are a lot of fun , but you don't want , you don't want your friends to see you on it . You know , Like I'm gonna jam out to this but I don't want anybody to know and and I think it's I Think that's a disservice because it's again going to that thing of like being genuine and being real and just trying to like set up who we are . And it's like you know , yeah , like you said , the nickel back , hatred and stuff . That's just like that's become an identity . Right to like . If you somehow hate on nickel back , that makes you like some you know Music guru or something like that . And it's like no , no , because like you can like music for different reasons . Right , music can serve different Parts of you , like I am .

David 53:36

You know I'm a drummer , I care about rhythm and stuff . I'm into rush and tool and dream theater and these bands that , like you know every other . You know Moment the time , signatures changing and things . But I can also Jam out to a you know four four pop song and just be like this is great . Lmfao is a great example of that . Love the group right , Cuz it's just , it's just fun , it's just party fun , yeah , yeah .

Raza 54:04

I was actually one of the . One of the great advantages of things like Apple music and Spotify is that they have the lyrics and the lyrics actually they're like connected to the song so they they'll move as almost like a tip , like a , like a right , like karaoke , yeah , like a teleprompter type thing . And anyway , many years later , I was that song was playing and and I'm like , let me just listen to the , you know , check out the lyrics and stuff . I'm like I mean the lyrics are brilliant , like you , it's undeniable . I'm like , okay , it makes sense that so many people like like them and likes the band and and I don't like dislike them .

Raza 54:45

And I was actually like kicking myself because I was just like like the shit is really like it's brilliant , it's brilliant writing and and Just because it's not heavy doesn't mean that it can't be good and like artistic . It really is that there's really good artistic value to the song and the lyrics and I Don't see myself being like a lifelong maroon 5 fan , but I get it , I do , I understand it and I get it . I mean I appreciate it . So , yeah , I can say that now , as you know , as someone in there , you know mid 40s , right , right .

Carolina 55:20

Yeah , I mean I think so much of the time period you've discussed this , like adolescence and even like early adulthood , you're trying to like I Don't know position yourself in the world , how you're perceived , and it can feel like when you know You're still developing that like every little thing you do is gonna like weigh heavily on how people perceive you . And I think as we get older and they say you know you start to give less fucks about things . Right , you realize that like I need to be more silly , I need to just like things because they're fun . Doesn't mean anything about me . But you know , I often say we're , we're just taller children . Right , we're all still like that kid in middle school looking for that you know place to sit and lunch with other people and make friends and we end up taking a lot of it too seriously .

David 56:13

Yeah , yeah for sure . Yeah , all right , moving on song five . So you know , sometimes music can be so powerful that it reminds us of something and we struggle with it . So you know ,

Difficult Career Times Felt in Foster The People

David 56:35

tell us about a song that you know brings up , you know , difficult memories , or you know you may have to turn off when you listen to it .

Raza 56:45

Yeah . So you know , if it , if Maroon five represents all , the , the promise and the , the potential . You know the next song represents basically that everything is fucked . And yeah , fast forward a couple years later . Basically , you know , from a career perspective I was , it was in the toilet Things were going pretty bad .

Raza 57:11

We had moved around a bit , had a few struggles , had some amazing I mean our kids were born and but you know , it wasn't , it wasn't easy . That it , thankfully , like health and everything was fine . But yeah , just one prefer professional standpoint was it was a very difficult time and , figuring out your stuff , the economy had collapsed around 2008 , nine or so , and you guys all know that . I mean , you know the legal profession was basically destroyed at that point and there was no jobs or anything like that . So you know all of the struggle of Trying to become something and Trying to become someone . That payoff basically wasn't happening and it was just a very , very difficult time . So , anyway , around that time we moved to DC area , virginia , and it was around 2013 and this song represents that . You know all that , the sort of the , the best of times and also the worst of times .

David 58:09

So yeah , you , I I'm yes , that was a foster . The people , huh , helena beat , lena beat , yeah . Yeah , this is one of those songs , like I'm . I'm so appreciative for , you know , being able to do this podcast and have these conversations because , you know , I know the song right , like the second I hear it . I'm like , oh yeah , I heard that song a bunch times , you know know it , but I've never paid attention to it right . And so , for you know , being that it was , you know , one of your songs , I you know , and loading it up , getting ready , I paid attention to the lyrics , right , and I was like , so just I'll say surprise , but but Pleasantly like , oh , my god , this song there's like , because it's got this kind of like happy feel to it , right , and so it's , it's a little bit of prejudice on my side . It's like , oh , that must just be about , you know , bubble , bubble gum and lollipops or something like that , you know , and it's like , no , it's , it's about Like the line like I don't even want to get out of bed those days .

David 1:00:00

You don't want to get out of bed , yeah so yeah , I appreciate it for that , just being able to , you know , learn a song a little deeper . Yeah .

Raza 1:00:11

Yeah , for me . I mean , I think one of the things we talked about was you know , what song do you have a hard time getting through , and and that this is , this is certainly you know , one of those songs which is which is Again , thankfully there's , there's . There's never been Health related things , knock on wood , but yeah , it was just a very , very difficult time it was . It was like things were everything was available to you because it's you know , we're in it , we moved , like I said , we moved to just outside of DC and there's all of this sort of knowledge and academic Influence and just influence in general . Like it's , it's amazing , you meet , you meet amazing people doing amazing things and you realize how hard people work to Become someone and and you realize how , like what it takes . And then you also realize , at least at the time it was , it's no , it's it's , it's not possible . It's Like DC is great , but this is not the right moment for me .

Raza 1:01:17

You know , in that space , like it's like that old saying , if you can have everything , but you can't have everything all at once , and so kind of going through the , the struggles of that and and and realizing that you know what this is .

Raza 1:01:31

Just it's , some things are just not possible . They might , they might happen at another time , but right now is not the time . And and then you're kind of faced with it . You , you , you , you , you have to process it , you have to struggle with it , you have to sort of , you know , beat yourself up over it and cry over it , and then you but you also have to , you know , get your shit together and and come up with whatever the next plan is To to survive and kind of , you know , get out of that struggle . But yeah , but this , the . So there's a time period around 20 , 2013 , 2014 where it where things were , you meet really really great people and you see what all is possible , and then you also realize what's just not possible . And yeah , so the song kind of represents that and yeah , and sometimes you just have to hit skip , go on to the next song 100% .

Carolina 1:02:29

Um , I Also was not aware of the lyrics to the song . I got have a the , the melody , like their voice it's , it's hard to figure out what , what words they're saying . So I tend to just kind of like dance to the song , like it's like a good upbeat , you know rhythm or whatever . But yeah , it's pretty heavy the lyrics , but like really hard time and how to like Keep that forward momentum . You know when life like knocks you down .

Carolina 1:02:59

I know for us we were in the DC area too and it does feel like there's there's a lot of promise . There's so many people moving and shaking and doing and like you feel like you've got put on like the super fast conveyor belt and you got to keep up . And I think similarly for us , we felt it was really hard . And then you get to like those times in your life where you're trying to do something for yourself and all that stuff . But you're also like a parent and you start to lose community and friendships because you're in that grind . There's like these years of your life where you're just in this grind all the time .

Raza 1:03:37

It feels like yeah , the grind is real , man , especially in DC . The struggle is real , and I mean so obviously , you know , fast forward , 10 years later , I'm back in DC and you know , squarely a part of the grind and also doing really , really fun things , like this podcast , and yeah , it's , it's . Dc is one of those places where anything is possible , but it's also one of those places where , if you fall , like it's , you know it will , it will test you and it will , it will knock you down and and it's one of those places where , where you can you really start to figure out you know what . What's important but also for me , like survival skills , like people , like people that do survive in DC , and I think that's true of me . You know , any DC happens to be my sort of big big city , you know example , but it's true of , I think , new York , LA , any of these bigger cities . But if you can survive , I can guarantee you that there's a lot of hard lessons that people have gone through in order to survive , because you realize that you know what the people that have made it on the other side of a struggle , like the shit that they went through .

Raza 1:05:00

It could be anything . It's a lot , there's , there's , there's a lot of , you know , hard work , a lot of luck , a lot of opportunity , a lot of preparation , and sometimes you do have to take a step back and kind of , you know , regroup , recollect , plan out your stuff . I was never a planner . I became one after in the last 10 years , since this song , and yeah . So there's , there's , there's a lot , there's a there's a lot going on , there's a lot of things that are possible , and I guess sometimes you have to just kind of step back , go back to Florida and then figure out your shit and then come back to DC .

Carolina 1:05:42

So yeah , because I think so much of when we talk about like career and success and even survival . There's a lot of this like grit to like suck it up and keep going . And you know , and we don't often talk about like survival is also knowing when to let go and when to take that step back , like you're saying , and regroup and say this is not for me in this moment . There's season of my life . So yeah , and like every song on this podcast , the fact that this puts you right back there is always super interesting that a song can do that .

Raza 1:06:21

Yeah well , I don't think any song can top your example , Carolina .

David 1:06:25

so I mean you know , and if you want to hear that song , go check out episode two of our podcast and Carolina songs .

Carolina 1:06:37

I think the connecting tie there can be can be grief , right , and grief comes from from a lot of different losses . It can be physical death and illness and all kinds of things , but it can also be the grief and loss of the life you were planning for or aspiring to . Or , you know , we , we dig our heels into the plans we have for life and then you know life says hold my beer , let me throw you a shit ton of curveballs right . And then you're like , oh God , I gotta , like you know , figure this out now .

David 1:07:08

Yeah , yeah .

David 1:07:09

So I really appreciate the phrase you said of you can have everything but you can have everything all at once , because it just so , when you said it , it just I knew exactly what you meant , having gone through similar things of like committing to something . In that case it was , you know , a PhD and you know Professor Land and that and you know you can have sort whatever you want kind of things , but there's going to be certain things you have to sacrifice and it's kind of like , are you willing to sacrifice those things ? And I think for a lot of us , we , we realize at some point of , no , I'm not willing to sacrifice family , my health , whatever it is , for this , for this thing I've committed to . And yeah , like Carolina , like you said , there's definitely a grieving process when that happens . Right of like , where I was committed for , where I thought I was going to life I thought I was going to have , where you know the specific way it was going to work , is not the case and I've got to rethink what I'm doing . Yeah , yeah , for sure .

Raza 1:08:18

And I don't think people realize . I mean , you know it's to each their own , but I think , at least for the three of us , it seems like it's kind of . The whole premise of this podcast is that you know significant events in your life , whether they're happy or sad or kind of in this case sort of a grieving process it's . It's attached to music and it's attached to a song or a few songs or whatever . And I mean , in my case , you know like we mentioned chili peppers a little while ago that it's when you have these moments of wow , other people felt the same way and other people feel the same way and they're able to , in a , in a sort of , in a nice , you know , package known as a song , put those sort of feelings and things together and put it out there in the universe and you realize that , oh , wow , there are other people that feel the same way . It's such a on the surface it's such a sort of mundane sounding phrase , but it really does help , you know yeah .

Raza 1:09:24

And and yeah , for a lot of people music is the thing that that saves them , gets them out of that moment and say , you know what , it'll be okay and that's nothing to take away from from . You know sort of mental health struggles and things like that completely as a sidestep but just for your little pitfalls and things like that sometimes you know , just a good song just kind of makes it . It's like a warm hug , just makes it better .

David 1:09:52

I would even . I would even say with the mental health , like a song might not be able to to heal you from it in time . You might heal you from it entirely . Right , you might need therapy , medication , whatever it might be . But even with mental health , hearing a song that is talking about the struggles of any type of mental health struggle , whether it's depression , anxiety , ptsd or something like that that helps too , in that way of just like , oh wow , I'm not the only one going through this , like just knowing the song doesn't fix it .

David 1:10:20

But again , that that feeling like you're not the only one going through it . Right , and that's really what it's . You know , art makes life bearable , really . Right , because it's like we're in this existence . That makes no sense . Right , we're electricity running through fucking meat suits that we're walking around in . Everything we do is about trying to keep ourselves alive . Right , we eat , we do all these things to keep ourselves alive , but at the end it's a failed . It's a failed attempt . Right , we , at the end we will all fail at it . Right , and so that's scary as shit . Right , and so like having music , kind of . Okay , I'm at least not alone in this . I'm not alone in these fears , these anxieties , these sadness , this break up , this struggle . It just takes away a little bit of that that suffer yeah it almost sounds like you know .

Raza 1:11:20

When people's I hate to . I might have to edit this out , but I'm just gonna say it for right now . You know people attempt suicide . What's almost your example sounds like attempt life , give it a shot . Yeah right , yeah , yeah , what you're doing is , you know , you're doing things to attempt to keep yourself alive .

Carolina 1:11:45

Yeah yeah like tie you back or ground you back . I think , for you know , for me one of the things that comes up that that music is so helpful with when it comes to grief and loss and and all of that is when you can't find the words . You know we think about , like the struggles you go through , an adolescence or even childhood , lot around you know , depression and PTSD , and even like LGBTQ youth and stuff who are struggling to like put two words , the angst or the pain or whatever it is they're feeling , and then to have somebody do that in this creative way , one exactly rather feels like a hug . Singing to things can almost feel like I don't know , like a cathartic alternative to crying . You know , when you sing and it just helps like paint that story that you couldn't like put , put up , put a word to .

Raza 1:12:45

Yeah , it's a connection we're looking for connection and and it's funny how it sometimes it's completely random , like a song on the radio , completely random and my heavy yeah song found you in this weird way yeah .

David 1:13:05

I like the phrase of attempt life Trademark in that sense of like , yeah , trademark . Because in that way of just , you know , as someone who , from PTSD and things , has struggled with the suicidal thoughts and things like that and kind of , you know , understanding it more personally that way , and now sort of healing from it and in some ways getting better , it feels exactly what I'm doing right now in there , like even the podcast and trying to get out there and doing these things . It feels like I'm attempting life again , like I was in this mode where I was Not so , you know , excited about life and all these , all of that , and it just felt like this struggle all the time , years , like I don't want to do this anymore . And now it feels like , yeah , it's like let's go attempt some life , just go do it . You know we're going to be gone anyways .

David 1:14:06

So , just like we said at the lot of times , just have fun , have some fun with it . Who cares ? Yeah , alright , moving , moving along our last song , and so you know we talked about that , you know everything's perfect , this is a great on the precipice of all these amazing things , and then like , okay , life , life dealt the blow and it was a struggle . And so with this last song , you

The Transition to Parenthood: Raza's Solamente Track "The Offspring"

David 1:14:36

know , tell us about a song or a piece of music that that you know is part of a weighty transition for you , when there was a before time and then and an after time .

Raza 1:14:49

Yeah , yeah , there's definitely been lots of , you know , transitions in in in my life , but I think the most , the most significant one is becoming apparent and you know , I'm eternally grateful for our two awesome kids who are both , you know , in their . They're both in their teens now , but we are anyway . So this is going to be a little bit of a shameless plug , but you guys mentioned this Solomante project in my , in my intro , and I thought that I would kind of Shamelessly plug my favorite track off of that , off of one of the albums and it basically so it's called the offspring and it's about my kids and I guess we'll talk about it on the on the other side .

David 1:15:46

Talk about the flip side , and if you can't plug your own music on your own podcast , I know Well , I mean it was driven to create music as the story like .

Carolina 1:15:59

Well , power to you . That's amazing .

David 1:16:01

I appreciate it , I appreciate it All right , let's take a listen . Solomante the offspring .

Raza 1:16:48

Yeah , I was Love it . I was kind of proud of my padded myself on the back a little bit , like when I was writing the words for this . I had no idea . I mean like I wrote all the music and stuff way you know , way before the lyrics . Actually , once pandemic happened that we had all this time and I was like you know what ?

Raza 1:17:08

The one thing I want to do is put out my , my it's actually my second album and and , yeah , for some reason some of the words seem to resonate and then it just the lyrical content like morphed into this thing about just kids and I was like you know what I'm just going to ? I have a Voice , might as well use it like the way you know , tobias Forge from from ghost said once and something about it just kind of just seemed like it's it ? The words seem to start , the words that I was putting together , like that's the theme that just came out and I think the part you guys heard there about you know , if you're , if you feel like nothing's right , I'll be there for you . If you just want to run and hide , I'll be right there with you . I was like you know what ? I'm just going to expand on that . So basically , out of that little course light the whole thing , I played the song for someone once a day like man .

Raza 1:18:04

I have no idea what this thing is about . I'm like the title is the offspring , I know . It's like like some scientific project gone bad . I'm like dude , it's about my kids . I just wanted to leave them like a note when I'm gone . There's maybe one , one thing that they'll know how I feel about them and , like you know , being responsible as a parent and a dad you know things like that , so yeah , I love that so much . Thank you .

Carolina 1:18:35

I mean so much of like the lyrics of music can be about , you know , love or struggle or war or political topics , or you know personal struggles , addiction , like all these kinds of things . Right , I don't feel like I hear as much about parenting , which is like I mean talk about a weighty transition that nobody prepares you for .

David 1:19:03

Yeah .

Carolina 1:19:04

The most epic responsibility of like trying to create a good human , um intergenerational things that you have to come to terms with about like your own childhood , what kind of parent you want to be , how you want to be like man that's parenthood is one of the most ultimate life struggles , and like challenges and adventures that one embarks upon Um to one . I love that the song , and I guess the album as a whole , is like a dedication to that . That journey , um , it's really , really cool .

Raza 1:19:43

Thank you , yeah , yeah , again , it was the funny part for me was right , like again I , a lot of most of the music was done , um , and I , I hear this is how the pros do it as well , which is , you know , you write , the band gets together and writes all the music and stuff and then , you know , at the very end , the singer comes in and , kind of you know , puts a pen to paper and so , yes , I had no idea .

Raza 1:20:10

You know , some , some people have asked me hey , you know , did you write a song about your kids ? I'm like , no , I mean , the music was there , um , but the lyrics were , I think , a creation of the pandemic and what we're going through , and you know the impact of the pandemic on our kids , and at this time , everyone was , you know , kids were going to school online and laptops and things like that . So it was just , it was a topic that was going around and for some reason , it just seemed to make sense . So , yeah , yeah , it was fun , it was fun to write it and then it was fun to write the lyrics and yeah , it's kind of a note to motherhood too , by the way , speaking to another mom here , which was , I think the first line is something like an act of love brought you two into this world and it's just like , no , like the act of giving birth is the ultimate act of love , um , and , and you know we're not , we're not the other act of love , um , but but but , but but yeah , it's just like .

David 1:21:14

Let me tell you about the night we made juice .

Carolina 1:21:19

I don't know if I want to hear that song .

David 1:21:21

No kid wants to hear that story .

Carolina 1:21:23

Well , there's plenty . I think there's plenty written on that .

Raza 1:21:27

All right , yeah , neil Peart has his most epic solo Um . But yeah yeah , it's , it's um . Yeah , it's , it's fun to be a dad . It's uh , it's uh , you know it's a gift and I think it's , it's , it's the ultimate gift from , from , from the mother as well , mothers as well . So yeah , we covered all the bases , basically .

David 1:21:49

Yeah , no , I love , I love um that that you know you selected this song to put out there . You call it a shameless plug . I think it's . You know , it's exactly what we want to hear , right , if we didn't have this song on here , a piece of you and your story and your life is missing , right , and so I I very much appreciate having this on here and , and really , you know , we focused on how the the transition is becoming a parent and the focus on your children .

David 1:22:23

But , you know , based on the previous couple of songs we've done and sort of following this story , um , you know , I also , like , am happy to have this as our , our last song in this way , because it also shows , um , your , uh , you know , for lack of a better word actualization , right , you , you are , hey , I was doing this thing . I'm uh , uh , you know , uh , uh , trying to succeed for my family and we moved here to succeed , and I'm trying to do this , and then it , it , it's struggling , it doesn't work and I'm not sure , in all these ups and downs , and then here's this part of like , well , I know , no matter what else I'm doing , this is something that's in me that I want to get out , right , and so I think , all too often , so many of us have those things and we just tell ourselves , no , I don't have the time , I don't have the this , I don't have the whatever , no one's going to listen , no one's going to care , everyone's going to laugh at me , whatever it might be , and you put it out there . You went and made it and put it out there and you know that's just so , so great and it's just so inspiring to hear in in a most basic sense of just no , make stuff . If you have it in there , put it out there , do it . The world , society and everything is going to try and take us out , take that away from us , right , and just make us , you know , work the job and and serve our purpose in that way . And yeah , we got to , we got to make , we got to make beautiful things . So thank you for this beautiful thing .

Raza 1:23:54

And no , thank you guys . I mean thanks for thanks for letting me , uh me , share this . And uh , yeah , no , it's uh , it's great , I really appreciate it . I appreciate sharing this with you guys . I mean , you know this is uh and now everybody knows .

David 1:24:11

That's right , and you can find links to Solamente Solamente music in the show notes .

Carolina 1:24:17

Um , yeah , yeah , I think definitely check it out . I love that this is the last song too . Like in talking about just the the ups and downs and roller coasters of of life , it um the fact that it ends with something you created makes me think of that , um that Jurassic Park quote right , like life finds a way um and to create right as humans .

Carolina 1:24:39

You know , I'm a former art teacher as well and I firmly believe that , like humans are drawn to instinctively create art and things . Those are the stories we leave behind and I'm not going to cry , but the idea that your kids have a song or an album that you wrote for them long after you know we're all gone . Like not going to cry , wrap it up , davis , thank you .

Raza 1:25:04

Yeah , we think , thank you , that's I've . Uh , yeah , I appreciate that , I appreciate , I appreciate that that it , like it , hit you the way that it did and I , you know . So , yeah , from one parent to another , you know yeah .

David 1:25:24

And so in wrapping up , we're sort of already starting to do a , but we normally , you know , um uh , wrap it up by saying , okay , you've , we've listened to these six songs , you've told these stories . You know how does it feel now looking back on everything and thinking of where you're going forward . You know how does it feel to hear all these songs .

How Does it Feel to Have Your Life Told in Six Songs?

Raza 1:25:45

Yeah , yeah , no , it's um , I feel good , I feel , um , I feel like I'm not someone who shares things very easily and I feel like I've , I've , you know I'm , I've put a lot of things out there into the universe and some of it might be a little unnerving , um , some of it is . It's like do people really want to know about me ? It's like you always have that one thing thought .

David 1:26:14

But , on the other hand , it's like we're going to care about this , exactly , exactly , and you know what it's .

Raza 1:26:19

I know that it was good . It was good that I feel good about it . I feel good that I'm able to share it , even if it's just with , with the between the three of us . Um , if some other you know people get some joy out of it , that's even better . But I think I'm content in that it's it's , it's out there Like I've done my part . Um , I'm super excited to hear other people's stories as well . Um , and , and you know , again , I , I've , I've , I've , I've been Um this , the idea of this podcast has inspired me .

Raza 1:26:52

And again , your tagline of you know what , we're not going to make our , our um guests do anything that we're ourselves not doing . So I'm like you know what , I'm doing it for the for , for the good of things , for the good of our guests , for the good of the podcast . I'm a team player and you know what Any any little bit of nervousness on my part or anxiety is . Like you know what , let's , let's do it , let me attempt it , and and let's see what happens . So I'm glad to put it out there . I'm glad you guys , you know , um , some of this stuff resonated with you guys . I'd really enjoyed hearing your um , your , your takeaways as well .

David 1:27:29

Um and yeah , yeah , super excited .

David 1:27:33

Yeah , I appreciate that . Yeah , I think it's one of those things , like we talked about these songs that spoke to you in some way , right , we talked about that , that power of music , and that way to like , oh I'm not alone , right , and this gets me and , and you know , uh , I think that's kind of you know what we're doing here . In that sense , you can't know who it might affect , but someone might hear something and it speaks to them , right , and they don't feel alone , and so , um , yeah , yeah , so come on the podcast , if we , if we invite you , come on . It's an experience for sure , for sure .

Raza 1:28:11

Um , and I think , going back to , that's right , judge , judge , we're not .

David 1:28:16

We're not talking about no , let me tell you why such and such band is better than guns and roses . That's not what we're trying to do here , and I think , kind of like you know , I appreciate what you just said too about , like , um , you know , uh , I actually enjoyed the process of telling my story and whatever anxiety , or you know , uh , who wants to hear this and stuff , um , you know , I think that's maybe one of the reasons why , yeah , conversations about music and stuff normally fall down to that easier . Let me tell you why your band isn't as good as my band . Right , because that's safer . Yeah , right , you're not opening up .

David 1:28:55

I don't have to tell you why Rush speaks to me , or I don't have to tell you about why typo negative changed my life . I don't have to tell you about how Alicia Keys , just , you know , wrecks me , um , and so , yeah , but we know that that conversation isn't isn't great , it isolates us , if you know , and stuff , and so I appreciate that in that way of sort of like we said we're , we're leading from the front , not asking our guests to do anything we wouldn't do . Yeah , um , it's that way of changing the conversation to say like no , let's . Let's kind of try and have more of these conversations , let's be a little bit more vulnerable , let's open up a little bit with each other .

Carolina 1:29:33

Yeah , well , and I think , um , you know we're getting at life stories , but through music , right , and I think if , if you were to have a conversation with somebody and you were like tell me your life story , like I think it'd be a way different story than the six songs I shared told .

Carolina 1:29:49

It's just a completely different perspective and angle to your life story . Um , you know mine has a lot not reflected in those six songs , but the the six songs give you , like the ups and downs and the nuances and like I think , more of me and my soul and who I am than a chronological order of like I was born here .

Carolina 1:30:09

Then we did this then that happened then you know those kinds of things , and so , um , as somebody who who just did this right and in our second episode , like I was nervous too , but like what a cool way to share my story that wasn't in in what you would think a traditional way would be .

David 1:30:26

Nice , all right , all right . So , uh , before we jump off real quick lightning round , uh ,

Pirate Metal and Type O Negative: Last and Best Concerts

David 1:30:34

what's your first , your last and your best concert ?

Raza 1:30:38

Okay , so my first uh , I'm going to take you guys all the way back to 1989 . This is this was in Pakistan and there was a band called vital signs . Anyone who's of Pakistani descent , who lived , I know my , my , my family , will know this reference right off the bat . But , yeah , uh , vital signs there were . There were a uh , there were a Pakistani uh pop band , um , and they put on a show .

Raza 1:31:07

One of my uncles and aunties , um , took me and my sister . We sat up front row . They had no drummer , they had a drum machine keyboards . It was very synthy poppy , but they had a live guitarist and I sat like directly square in front of him and during one of his guitar solos he like winked at me because it was like me and my , my cuddly little sister sitting there . He's like ah , I see you guys , you know , uh , yeah , so that was , that was my first Um . It was great Uh . Last concert uh was a band called ale storm . There , I kid you not , they're a sort of a pirate metal band . I I consider myself like a connoisseur of metal . I have never heard of these guys before , but the show was ridiculous , oh my God .

Raza 1:31:55

Um wait , like pirate , like our yeah , yeah , yeah , and there's songs about how you get drunk on the drum and yo ho ho mateys , wow , and then really fast drums and yeah , it's crazy , so like .

David 1:32:06

Viking metal , but pirate metal pirate metal yes . So we're not . We're not singing about Vikings and gods and everything we're pirates .

Raza 1:32:14

We're pirates . Yeah , we're invading , you know , the Caribbean islands and we're finding , you know , puttna like treasure chests and and and getting pissed drunk on rum and uh , you know , and one-eyed parrots and all this stuff . Yes , pirate metal .

Carolina 1:32:28

What's the name of this band ?

Raza 1:32:29

Ale storm , yeah , like , like you know like , like , yeah , like leader , yeah . And it was for one of my buddies .

Carolina 1:32:37

Right now for later .

Raza 1:32:39

Uh , um , thank you , ben , and um , it was , it was , yeah , it was insanity , but but it was . It was a great time , really a fantastic drummer , by the way , like you know blast beats and shit . I'm like what , what is what's going on ? Um , and then best concert was , uh , typo negative , and I'll never forget the date because it was on my 17th birthday in Fort Lauderdale , like a month before high school graduation , and typo was at their peak . This was the October Russ tour . Uh , uh , the theater in Fort Lauderdale , florida . I went with my sister and a couple of other friends and , yeah , best concert and probably best concert , uh , you know , forever , ever and never into perpetuity . So , yeah , those are my three best concert for all time , all time . Cause typo's gone , dude , like it's been there , right , there's no the final nail in the coffin . So , yeah , yeah , yeah .

David 1:33:42

Yeah , all right . Well , raza , thank you for opening up to us and our , our audience . Um , you know , like we said , we've , we've , we've tried to lead from the front with this and so , uh , you know , thank you for for that . Um , you know , in , in just wrapping up in the few minutes we we have left , um , you know , tell us , uh , what you've got going on that people might be interested in , or how they can connect with you , or , you know , whatever you want to share with folks .

Raza 1:34:16

Oh yeah , well , again , thank thank you guys . Right , I mean again , this is , this was sort of an experiment that I had never imagined myself doing ever , and it's like it's such a cool idea . So , yeah , love doing it . Uh , really looking forward to how this thing plays out . Um , yeah , I'm on , I'm on insta , I'm on threads . Um , it's uh , uh , raza is my name , um other than that .

David 1:34:42

As far as uh , yeah , Um Raza is my name , podcasting is my game .

Raza 1:34:50

You can subscribe here , here , here and right there . Yeah , yeah , as I have a day job , um , and and I have a , uh , I have album number three from Solomon day , which is probably going to drop at some point by the end of the year , I'm hoping , um , that's Solomon dayband on insta , and , other than that , I have this podcast that I am super excited and , frankly , honored to be a part of . Um , I'm , um , and everyone knows how to get in touch with us here and uh , that's me in a nutshell .

Carolina 1:35:25

All right .

David 1:35:26

Thank you . All right , everyone . Uh , make sure you know a life in six songs , like and subscribe were . Anywhere you find your podcast , we're there , you know . If you want to watch us , um , we , we , we've got a YouTube channel , a life in six songs . Just search that , you can watch it , or you can just listen to the audio . If that's how you like to get your podcasts , find them anywhere . You can reach out to us at a life in six songs podcast at gmailcom . Um , so , yeah , definitely , like , subscribe , follow us . Uh , go back , listen to the first couple of episodes , learn who your hosts are and then , from here on out , going forward , it's going to be , you know , the three of us with another guest and stuff , and so we're going to hear some more songs and some more life stories and we are very much excited and so , um , that has been a life in six songs .