I'm speeding down six . Speeding down six . I've been way too long . I've got my fix . Yes , I'm speeding down six . Speeding down six . I'm hurrying home .
Speaker 2I remember once I was performing and it was in this cast party in New York , and Liza Minnelli was there and my heart was . I'd never sung the song so quickly in my life , but I remember Liza coming up saying you were great . I was speechless , wow .
Speaker 1It was marvelous , and sometimes , when I'm all alone with just a ukulele and a microphone , hi , welcome back to how Much Can I Make ?
Speaker 4I'm Elaba Zeri . The song you just heard , Spitting Down Six , is by my guest today , Zoe Lewis . She is amazing . Zoe does everything she writes , sings , performs , produces , and she just has this way of turning regular moments into something magical . The Boston Globe called her equal parts musician and storyteller , which is spot on . Her songs have been everywhere Broadway , documentaries , movies , even commercials and I've seen her live a few times . Honestly , every show left me buzzing . I'm really excited to have her on today , so let's just jump in .
Speaker 1Okay .
Speaker 4Zoe , thank you so much for doing it . I've seen your shows over the years . I think you are brilliant your lyrics , your performance . So I have so many questions that I want to ask you . But let's start with . You've been called a band in a body .
Speaker 2Well , I'm a band in a body because I play so many instruments and it was termed many years ago . I mean , I never thought about it . But you know , I'm a piano player first and foremost . But then you know traveling . You can't take your piano with you , so I picked up the guitar and then I found a ukulele and then I jumped freight trains and you can't even jump a freight train with a ukulele very easily . So I put a harmonica in my pocket and that's how I learned to play harmonica . And then I traveled the world . You know people find musical instruments growing on the trees or out of garbage can lids or from the coins in their pocket .
Speaker 4From all your instruments , which one is your favorite ?
Speaker 2Well , the piano is the one I'm most proficient on . So and that's what I learned as a child and I love it . I can pour my heart out on the piano . But it was very good for me to pick up other instruments and unlearn what I'd learned , because then it kind of came out of a purer place . When I play the guitar , I don't know what on earth I'm doing . I just stick my fingers anywhere and I'm like that's nice . But with the piano I used to think about it more . I mean , I still do think about it a bit , but I broke that thinking about it and now I just sort of play from my heart .
Speaker 4Did you always know you want to be a musician ? At what age did you develop this musician ?
Speaker 2writer , songwriter , my mom always said she was tone deaf and she wanted a child that
could sing . And she had me when she was 51 . So my brother's sister , 20 years older . So she said , not that we're a religious family , but she said she prayed for a child that could sing . So I always say when I came out of the womb I was singing . I've always wanted to do music and I didn't have a piano until I was 13 . Always wanted to do music and I didn't have a piano until I was 13 . My dad had a little sort of organ thing that you know we'd plug in and I'd play . He was musical but he never followed it .
Speaker 4When did you start writing music ?
Speaker 2Well , I was always writing poems . I had . I grew up with a lot of children's verse in England Robert Louis Stevenson and AA Milne . I love all these magical children's poems . I still do read children's poems because they're gorgeous . Especially I've got books , and books of the old ones . So I was always writing poems and I was always singing and I had piano lessons . Without having a piano , I'd go around to an old lady's house every Sunday and I'd do my practice , but of course I wasn't playing the notes that were on the page , I was just making it up and because my mum was tone deaf , you know , and having a cup of tea with her friend , they thought I was just being a good girl .
Speaker 4Your mum tone deaf .
Speaker 2Tone deaf meaning you know she can't sing in tune but my dad could and apparently my mom's mom was could have been a concert pianist , you know so so it runs in the family anyway , so how did a girl from the uk ends up becoming an icon in provincetown massachusetts ?
Speaker 4an icon ? Everybody knows you , everybody loves you . I talk to some people here well , like you know .
Speaker 2So I come from a tiny village on the south coast of England . I'm from the water , you know . I grew up going to the sea . I would play my piano . When I did get my piano , I was , they put it in my room and I was in my room the whole time playing piano , teaching myself , basically . And then I joined a band , moved up to London , you know , when I was 18 .
Speaker 4What kind of music did you play in the band ?
Speaker 2Actually it was in the summer holidays and I said to my parents , can I just be in the band ? So the first band was sort of punk rock . I didn't care what music it was I was , they wanted a keyboard player and I was in and I thought this was the best . I was happy as a clam . In the back of the Melody Maker , which was the magazine in England , the newspaper , I saw an ad for a keyboard player . I went to London , I took my synthesizer and because I had a synthesizer , then in 2006 .
Speaker 2Anyway , I got into the band and these kids were studying sort of like performance art , like fame . They were going to the Middlesex Polytechnic in London and they were studying all sorts of music and Latin had come in . It was the Latin tinge they were studying , I remember , because Sade was playing Latin music . And as soon as I heard this Latin music we didn't have that in my village , you know , it was hard enough for me to find out what jazz was and as soon as I heard this my body reacted .
Speaker 4I'm glad you're bringing up the Latin , because one of the questions that I have your song Chili . It's a great song .
Speaker 1It has a very Latin feel to it A little bit of chili , a little bit of lime Salt on the rim and a little bit of thyme . You're gonna feel happy , you're gonna feel fine , You're gonna feel very , very fine . Sunday morning , the sound of bells . Dogs are barking the bacon smells
.
Speaker 2Yeah well , I traveled . I've been to over 70 countries now . When I left England really it's because I wanted to come to the States and come out I didn't realize that I had my sights set on San Francisco . But you know , I wasn't thinking that . I went across South and Central America and there were the Latin grooves , me and my backpack talk about band in a body . I was , that's where I was picking up calabash off the trees , jamming with everyone and seeping in like a little sponge , all of these musical grooves . So the Latin really spoke to me . In England the music's very on the beat and I'm attracted to the offbeat . I like swing , I love to swing and I love the Latin . So I'm always headed towards Latin countries . The music's free , like the people , the rules are lax , the weather's hot , people's hips move . All of a sudden my hips were moving to music . It was good for me , it opened me up . So my song Chili , full of the Latin grooves and inspired by my winters in Mexico , because that's where I play every winter now , in Puerto Vallarta .
Speaker 4You have many different styles , for example the song the Whale . By the way , you have lots of albums . I do have 10 , do have , yes , you have a lot of albums and great songs , but the whale has kind of a little um jazzy feel .
Speaker 3The whale is right .
Speaker 2A complete different style yeah , well , that's been my detriment through the years , even though I people say you can't put me in a box , which is a great thing , but then the DJs never know which station to play me on . Should they play me on the jazz station , the world beat one , the folk one , the children's one , the humorous one ? But you know , it's because I've traveled and I , like I said , I was a sponge and I love all . I love good music and that's it . So I might be listening to some Cape Verdean grooves . For instance , I love Cesare Evora , if you know her .
Speaker 4I love her .
Speaker 2And you know Portuguese and Brazilian mixed , and Cape Verde . I mean I'm like what are these grooves ? I would sit in my hammock and just swing , like I'm sure the people there did too . It slows you down , you mellow . These grooves are phenomenal , and the instruments they play on . So then you know you listen to that enough , and then you go to write and suddenly you've written something with a vague sort of Cape Verdean feel .
Speaker 1The future's looking grim . We're all in decline the humpback and the fin , but the worst fate is mine .
Speaker 4What was the story behind the whale ? How did you come to the idea of writing a song about a whale ?
Speaker 2Well , the whale is right . You see , we have the right whales here .
Speaker 4Here you mean in Provincetown , in .
Speaker 2Provincetown and they are endangered . And you know why they're endangered ? Because the whalers killed them . They were the right whale to catchers killed them and they were the right whale to catch for as far as they were concerned . So we're very excited now when we see a right whale here and only a few hundred left , I believe , on this planet and they come through Provincetown . So when the right whales come through , they are documented very much and we rejoice and study them and I'm friends with , like
you know , scientists and people from the coastal studies here , so we hear their reports . Oh , I was thinking about all that . And the whale is right . Nature knows far better than we . I like to twist the words and you know we need to listen to the animals and listen to the whale .
Speaker 4So that's what that song is about and since we are on the environment thing , you have the song about the plastic soup , yes , which I actually heard you sing live in front of kids and I could imagine what brought you . It's probably the plastic in the pacific that we all know about pacific garbage patch but what I want to know ? What is the reaction of the audience when you sing that ?
Speaker 2Oh well , I think everyone's on the same page . It's just dire when you look up at how big these islands are , these plastic islands that are floating in the middle of the oceans . I don't like to preach when I'm on stage , but if you can tell a story through someone's eyes , through an animal's eyes , I mean , you make it personal . I love to have children at the audience because you know you can make a huge impact . They're our hope for the future . And they get up there and they all scream out no , we have to stop using plastic . It's very hard to stop using plastic , but do you want to have some plastic soup ?
Speaker 2And the children scream out no because they love screaming out no , and it gets the point across .
Speaker 4Last year I saw your show Speakeasy . Tell me about that show and how long did it take you to put it together , because that seemed to me like really hard .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's a lot of work , the Speakeasy , but for me it's all about community . I love the 1920s . I love all those old songs where there were fabulous melodies . It could be maybe because my parents were older and I grew up listening to some of those old tunes . I love the messages in some of them . They're beautiful . I would be in a restaurant and the waiter would come and bring some food and he'd be singing as he arrived . I'm like you've got a gorgeous voice , would you like to be in the show ? And then the lady in the bank is like humming a tune or the mailman , and it's my community oh those were all ordinary people .
Speaker 2They were not musicians . We have celebrities , we have , I mean , all people are ordinary and fabulous . So if you open your eyes or your ears , you find them . We've been doing it for over 10 years . I've had probably over 150 different performers or if not 200 . You know , I find someone and now everyone finds me .
Speaker 2But you know , they come over to the house and we discuss which song . Do they know any songs from the 20s ? Do you want to learn one ? Do you want to ? Do you want to be a lady or a man ? Because they dress up . Do you want to be funny ? Do you want to croon ? And I love it because it's the gay 20s . That was the time when anything goes . So we have flappers , we have the gorgeous cigarette girl , we have debonair gents , we have trombones , clarinets , kazoos , a whole prohibition era jazz band and over the years I've , you know , had all these different spectacular performers and , of course , when they come and sit next to me at the piano , they tell me their life story and we become friends . Yeah , we all connect . They tell me that they were told they could never sing when they were little and thank you so much . I realize I can now .
Speaker 4I know you have celebrities in the show too , but just to use your mailman or whatever . How did it come to you to do that ?
Speaker 2Well , we live in a little artistic community and it's the same like New York . Look , every waiter is really an actor . Everyone has other talents , you just have to find them . The Every waiter is really an actor . Everyone has other talents , you just have to find them . The venue was great . It sort of was like a speakeasy , and I always dreamed of doing something like that , and I probably got a few singers that I knew to come and help me and then someone's like oh , did you know ? So-and-so , they've got a gorgeous voice . They'd love to be in this .
Speaker 2Fantastic and it just grows . We just had Kate Pearson joined us . We've had Margaret
Cho Leah Delaria and the mailman .
Speaker 4Now I know you toured with Judy Collins and the Go-Go Girls Indigo Girls , Indigo Girls . Sorry , Do you have any ?
Speaker 2wild memories from any of it . What was the experience like ? It's wild for me playing on a really big stage because I'm used to playing small venues where I can see people's eyes , especially when you're the opening act and everyone's waiting really for the next person . You know , and it's just you . You have to go up and be very big . I remember saying to Amy from the Indigo Girls how do you do it when you can't see their eyes Because it's all black up there ? You just have the lights in your eyes and she said you feel them . That was really good advice .
Speaker 4And do you ?
Speaker 2Yeah , you do feel them , but it's scary and it's fast . You know , I remember once I was performing and it was in this cast party in New York and Liza Minnelli was there and my heart was . I'd never sung the song so quickly in my life . Apparently I got through it so quickly and in quite a high pitched way . But I remember Liza coming up saying you were great , I was speechless , wow , it was marvelous , you know .
Speaker 4I want to ask you about money . I can understand how you make money with the indigo girls and Judyins and all of that , but when you do like a show like speak easy , that we spoke about or or other little show , how do you make money ?
Speaker 3doing it .
Speaker 2Well , you don't pick the job as a musician to make money . But what I have learned is how to live small . You can be very rich and have very little . You know , when I lived with the family in guatemala , they had very little but they gave me everything and I came back feeling very full . So then I came to Provincetown and I was lucky enough to find a very cheap rental an old , dilapidated apartment next to Spiritus Pizza . You could see through the floorboards and hear the upstairs neighbor . There were old oak beams , they say Tennessee Williams used to live there . It was 500 bucks a month and for 25 years I paid 500 bucks a month . That's what enabled me to do music all those years . What my first summer ? I had 13 shows a week and I saved all my money . And then I went traveling the world . The best things in life are free , and if you just can have enough in fact I'm trying to write a song called Enough right now , because what is enough ?
Speaker 4I read that you sold some of your song or licensed some of your song to other musicians .
Speaker 2No , I've had my songs , some of them used by commercials and films .
Speaker 4That's a moneymaker .
Speaker 2That , yes , talking about money , that was the best money I ever had made . It was a miracle . And it's funny because I wrote a song called Small is Tremendous , about the little things in life being much larger . Really , it's my philosophy in life , you know , and that's how Judy Collins found me .
Speaker 2I was playing in a music festival in Canada and this lady with you know white hair kept walking back and forth while I was playing and Roxanne was giving me the eye and I didn't know who it was . And the next thing I knew she had summoned me to her dressing room and was offering me a record deal and that song , small is Tremendous , was on the record . I must say Wildflower Records . They put the music out because I'm always doing it myself and I don't necessarily get the songs out there , but that record got out there and it was everywhere . It was heard by an advertising company . They put in the word small in google and I came up . So small really was tremendous because they I came home from a bike ride and on my answer machine in those days it was an answer machine they were like it's grey's agency , we're very interested in licensing your song . Can we talk to your lawyer ? And I was like , yes , can I get back to you ?
Speaker 3And then I was like how do I get a lawyer ?
Speaker 2So small was very big , small was very big , and then Pringles potato chips . Even put out a mini Pringle and they contacted me .
Speaker 3So yeah , I had Pringles and I also had .
Speaker 2Tj Maxx was a big label , small prices . Who knows ? That's amazing , you don't . You write a song and it has a life of its own if you can get it out there which song made you the most money ?
Speaker 2I would say small is tremendous , and also a song I wrote a long time ago called sheep , and I was working on a sheep farm in New Zealand that , and I sat there with all the sheep and there's I did . I just thought there was like one kind of sheep . There's like many different kinds of sheep , with all different kinds of wool and different colors and different black sheep , a white sheep , a curly sheep , a long horn a black tongue .
Speaker 2And anyway there was a poster in the barn and I wrote down all the different sheep and I wrote about these sheep and Putamaya Records were doing compilations in those barn and I wrote down all the different sheep and I wrote about these sheep and Putamaya Records were doing compilations in those days and they used that song for their folk playground compilation . It was played on aeroplanes . It was for 18 weeks . It was number one on the kids satellite radio . My mom heard it in England in a gardening center . I got . I remember I was in France and I had the Today Show asked me to be on it but I didn't know what the Today Show was and I turned it down because I had a gig in the Provincetown Library .
Speaker 2Oh please , zoe .
Speaker 2That's me but anyway , sheep did very well for me and even you know these kids . You know I got another call not too long ago from Netflix . I wrote eight songs for Storybots , which is a cartoon on Netflix , a very popular one . That made me quite a lot of money too , and that was because the guy Evan Spiridoulis , who made the cartoon his kids loved my sheep song and they played it in their house . And of course they've grown up now but I was on heavy rotation all my songs in their house apparently . So when he wanted a songwriter , you know
he contacted me . You just never know .
Speaker 3You never know Now .
Speaker 4I have to ask and you don't have to answer if you don't want to . When you say it made you a lot of money , is it in the thousands ? And you ?
Speaker 2don't have to answer if you don't want to , when you say it made you a lot of money . Is it in the thousands ? Yeah , I think I got maybe 30,000 , just that first commercial and then another 30,000 , I think , for the next , but then of course , the taxman .
Speaker 3Well of course , yeah , yeah , yeah .
Speaker 2When I was writing for the Netflix thing , I realized I really enjoyed having a deadline and a mission . It's not something that I've done too much , but when someone says , zoe , write a song about this or do this , I come up with the goods . I love dreaming up things . I think you just , I'm just dreaming all the time about the next thing .
Speaker 3So you always have a song in your head going on ?
Speaker 2Yeah , I always have some sort of . You know I'm working towards the next thing In my mind . You know , like on the bicycle you're like writing a song as you go , or if you're swimming there's something going on in your head and then you don't forget it until you get home .
Speaker 3Nowadays , I do .
Speaker 2In the old days I didn't .
Speaker 4Now you said you traveled to many countries , over 70 countries .
Speaker 3Which one surprised you the most musically ? That's great question .
Speaker 2One of my , favorite countries is Tahiti . I was , I played a cruise in Tahiti and they play ukulele there . They have a different style of ukulele , a Tahitian uke with the sound hole in the back , and I came home with one of those and it is a beautiful sounding instrument . I was in Indonesia too , and they have the gamelan and I don't know enough about that kind of music . But to me , latin music is what I love because it's much freer and when I was with the Indonesian , it's regimented . Everyone has their own part . You know one person will be going dong and another will go diggity-boom , diggity-boom , diggity-diggity . Another will go diggity , boom , diggity , boom , diggity , diggity , boom , diggity . You know it's . It is a layer , like an orchestra . It's beautiful but it's written . There's not a lot of room for freedom , for free expression .
Speaker 4That's what I love about jazz and Latin music so if you could keep one instrument from all your collection , what instrument ?
Speaker 3would that be ? Well , the piano is my number one Right , but from all the others .
Speaker 4I saw you playing all kinds of things .
Speaker 2Yeah , well , it would probably be the ukulele . The ukulele . Not that I'm that great on it , but I could get better on it if I just would keep one and it's so you can take it anywhere . You know you can take it on the beach , it's anywhere . You know it's , you can take it on the beach , it's , it's a wonderful and it doesn't hurt your fingers , like the guitar .
Speaker 4Like the guitar . Which one song you are never tired of performing ?
Speaker 2these are great questions . Well , I do like playing chili because I don't have to say anything about it I love that song , by the way people just move their seats .
Speaker 2I'm all about the story and all about the lyric , but I love to see the music just affect people . As soon as I start doing a Latin groove , people like sit up and something happens . I mean it's fascinating to watch people around the world . You know , if I do that , say if I'm playing in a restaurant or something , and there's anyone of Latin ethnicity around , they'll suddenly start , you know , salsaring to the music or joining in . If I do it in England , people sit cross-legged and smile at me but then they'll start trying to let go . I just did it in Nebraska .
Speaker 2People had a real hard time clapping on the offbeat . They all clap on the beat , but it's really interesting . So yeah , chile . I always kind of enjoy my souvenirs song clapping on the offbeat . They all clap on the beat , but it's really interesting . So yeah , chilly . I always kind of enjoy my souvenirs song because that's about a dear friend of mine , elona . A mellow song . It's a bit French , a bit Scott Joplin-y . It evokes the past . I have quite a lot of songs about people who are not with me anymore and when I sing them there they are on my shoulder .
Speaker 4Oh , fantastic .
Speaker 3If your life had a theme song . What would that be ? Welcome to the Circus .
Speaker 2Welcome to the Circus of Life .
Speaker 1Grab it by the horns .
Speaker 2The other one is Don't Blink or You'll Miss it . It's a crazy old world , but we
have to grab every moment . You never know if we're going to go tomorrow .
Speaker 1And we giggle , just like schoolgirls , to every lamb chop joke , because laughter is the medicine and music is the hope we have to grab every moment .
Speaker 2You never know if we're going to go tomorrow , so be kind and make the most of every second .
Speaker 4All right , and , on that note , thank you so much . I really enjoyed it and I was literally dreaming of interviewing you , because I love your performances so much . They're so poignant and intelligent and the music is fantastic , thank you so much .
Speaker 2You are the best , marat , thank you .
Speaker 4I'm so happy to be on this podcast . You know I'm glad . Thank you , that's a wrap for today . If you have a comment or question or would like us to cover a certain job , please let us know . Visit our website at howmuchcanimakeinfo . We would love to hear from you and , on your way out , don't forget to subscribe and share this episode with anyone who is curious about their next job . See you next time .