Getting Feedback + Juneteeth

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Hello, and welcome to Rhythm and Purpose, the podcast where we two high school graduates learn to navigate the adult world in an alternative way. I'm Melody, an aspiring Tollywood actress. And I'm Ori, song artist and visionary. Let's get into it. So, in the last episode, we started talking about putting things into motion, learning to take our plans, and now branching out and really fully putting them into practice. Now, what we're going to do is dive deeper into that internship that we just briefly talked about last time, where we are working on eight different music projects, specifically eight different music and visual projects, where we're acting as project managers for music production that we're both doing and visual production that we're both doing. I know for you, you're working more on the animation side, and I'm also working on the more technical Adobe lyric video side since I am not as good as an artist as you, but I'm also learning to, despite not knowing how to draw, yeah, still tell stories in a visual way. And then we're going to be talking about how we already started putting that practice into like motion with our first project and how we actually was able to send it out this week and get some feedback from our anonymous reviewers. So we're going to be talking about how that feedback went and just learning to love feedback. Yeah. As well. So yeah, I'm excited to talk about that today. We're also going to be talking about our physical health as well. Yes. We're going to be, yeah, we're going to be diving into like how do we come up with this like health journey that we're on right now. And we're going to be talking about Ori's like personal like journey and how she lost over 35 pounds, literally. So we're going to be talking about that as well. And then to finish off, we're going to be talking about Juneteenth and how that kind of connects with how we're going through this like internship and learning in a like alter like alternative way. And we're going to also highlight one of the classics from Juneteenth and really just connect it all back to how we are doing something different, and we're proud of that. And we're not ashamed that we are doing something different. Yeah. So let's get started. Um, let's first just talk about our internship. So we've been working hard on this internship for a while to improve and make our skills and our arts better. So really focusing on animation and for me learning music production so I can better bring like my own art to life by using someone else's art as practice to bring their vision to life. Yes. Um, our dad, Dr. NQ, is really helping us with this like opportunity to use his own songs to like practice mixing. For me, practice animation and how to get like crisp and smooth animation. And it's really like helping us get back on track to go back to college and really establish how we can create a actual like good workflow and be ready to just enter the workforce in general and stand out as well. Right. Um, we're working on 40 songs in total, and this month we started working on songs already. I've been working on five songs. Um while NQ did like the basic panning and volume control. I started using um effects like EQ compression and things of that nature to help bring the track from just a recorded track with different pannings to hopefully something that um is studio re like studio ready. Yeah. And I am working on animations for Martyr, Changeling, and Phoenix, and also our Famiversary theme song as well. Um this week we sent our first drafts. Um, yes, you sent Changeling, and I sent um the first three songs. This is first project. This first project is from Three Faces. Um, this that's the name of the album that's gonna be launched um with these songs. So I've um sent Proud, Famous, and Dr. NQ, and these are like out of the eight songs from our album. Yeah. And um just getting like Changeling out, um, because I'm doing like all like most of the animations for this album. So I sent out a draft of Changeling, and I got like really good feedback actually, like really, really good feedback because I know that um that currently right now I am not my animation is not where it should be. And I definitely know that was one of the things that my dad helped point out to me because there is a part in Changeling in the beginning where it's just 30 seconds of blank space, and my dad was helping me understand how that is actually really harming the whole video because to an audience member they don't know what's going on, and if the first 30 seconds, which that's like the 30 seconds that either tells us whether to keep watching or not, if the first 30 seconds is blank, completely blank, then of course anyone would click off. And just really understanding how I have to make sure that my animation is not being the harm of this music because I really want the artist's message to be out there and not have my animation ruin it. So I'm really like understanding how I need to get better at like making the animation smoother, I have to understand how to make my workflow more efficient and stuff like that. So I don't be the detriment of the song, because the animation is helping the song, it's not the thing that is being supported by the music, if you know what I'm saying. Yeah, um that is like very, very um interesting to reflect on. Um I do disagree with the language of ruin, but I think what the point of that was was really saying how to make the music flow with the visual. Yeah. Your your art wasn't exactly ruining the music because the music was going to stay as it was, but it definitely did tell a different story that would have left a different impression on people. Yeah. Because really what makes it ruined is subjective. It like depends on the person. Even if you did it like a different way and like um or did it perfectly in your eyes, in some people's eyes it might be seen as ruined. But I think what the better thing is like is this like the story, is these visuals really telling the story that the artist wants to tell. Yeah, that's I completely understand that because I do want the story to be clear. I really want for the audience, even if they don't like it, I want the story to be clear that's if someone was watching it, they could be like, Oh, I get it. It's not my cup of tea, maybe because like the animation style is not what they like. But it can be like, Oh, I get what you're trying to say, instead of me having to explain myself. That's really what we really are learning, at least that's what I've kind of gathered as well as like a project manager, because I'm the project manager of this specific project, that's what I've been notice like noticing. Yeah, is that your the that your art didn't like ruin the thing because by themselves they are pretty good art pieces. But they did lack clarity. Yeah, and that's the thing that I was that's the thing that I don't want my animations to be like a thing where people have to play the guessing game in order to figure out what are they talking about, or have those empty spaces. I definitely don't want for the audience to be taken aback from it because there's 30 seconds of empty space, if you know what I'm saying. So but yeah, absolutely. But I definitely know I did wouldn't have gotten to that point with my animation without you and dad like helping me realize that. And I know at first yeah, I know at first it was like kind of like difficult for you to like be critical. So I definitely know that was like something that was new for you, but with your help, it really did help me understand that I have gaps and I need to work on them. Right, yeah. Um yeah, as a project manager, I definitely was like not doing you justice. I was definitely not really being as attentive as I should have been because I definitely should have caught this earlier on because it was so unclear I honestly kind of blame myself partially for that because I was supposed to be like the person who helped either like notice that, so all the questions that would have left from watching the videos would have either been answered or we could have found a different way around it because I wasn't really paying as much attention to your art or because I didn't also want to be like too critical, because I do understand that animation does take a while. A lot longer than people might even like realize. But at the same time I have seen and witness what you could do even with less time than you have, and I do blame myself for allowing that to be like almost a excuse or a buffer when in reality I've already seen you do so much in such a little time. And we're trying to prepare for the studio, we're trying to prepare for the real workforce, and um you may not be able to, more than likely not, be able to get like as much time and stuff as you are getting now to do these animations. So I as a project manager I had d I had the duty to prepare you for that, and that's where I know I failed a bit with um this first draft. And that's the thing that's that I'm reflecting on as well. Yeah, no, and I'm also reflecting on how I could have like definitely like with your like suggestion of me looking up videos to help me with certain elements that I wanted in my animation videos and having the knowledge once I watch those videos to actually, you know, produce that effect or animation style. I definitely know that I failed on my part to take that suggestion and look up things because I'm a learner right now. I'm I know that I I have to get to the point where I can do this stuff like, you know, quicker and faster, you know. Yeah. But I definitely know that I could have done the res like done the work to improve. So I definitely know that's something that I'm reflecting on. Yeah. Um one of the things that I also learned, speaking of not being as attentive, is when I was sending my tracks, I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing, and I almost sent like muted tracks to the reviewers because I was following a tutorial on how to export the songs, and while I was doing that, I didn't think to like check. Like, hey, one are these songs that I'm exporting, are they ready? Are they good? Are any is anything muted? Um, and I didn't like check afterwards, like, hey, let's make sure before we really say this is done to really check that. No, I I'm just grateful that um Dr. NQ like caught that and help you understand how like you can't pr like send something off for feedback if you don't have all the elements there for feedback, like to get real good feedback, because it's kind of hard to give feedback if there's a whole part of the song that's completely gone. Right. So I'm just grateful that he caught that and also helped us understand that although we're so excited to like get feedback now. I was nervous. Um you were nervous, but even though we were kind of like nervous, excited, and like together, all those feelings together, we have to understand that we have to slow down and make sure that we have all the things unmuted. And I really that's like the lesson that I learned as well because I was having troubles with exporting my first draft as well, because I didn't save it. So that's something I really didn't like learn. Yeah, really when like one of the things that I've learned was like you can't you have to slow down. Mm-hmm. I was so nervous about sending this off that I was moving too fast and I didn't like stop and pause and be like, okay, let's really check each component. Um and because I didn't do that, I almost sent like basically like no work when I worked like a long time on these tracks. Um so because I was being so aimless with my music, um, it was so important to have something to really focus on and something to keep me accountable as well. So I've um gotten the checklist, a checklist that I follow now for each song with the different 90 minute blocks that I have, because we have 90 but like minute blocks every day, well not every day, um, Monday through Saturday, usually kind of ish, more like Monday through Friday, to work on these different pro like different components of the projects. So um I was given like a checklist um that breaks everything down from when I see the pans, the volume pans, and just adjusting it a little bit more so it's all equal, to of course sending it for feedback to all the way to exporting it. And just like referring back to the last episode, it's really like important um to have that checklist. And I learned that really being so detailed about your structure is so important. Because we had structure, we still have structure, but there is like components like even today where I forgot to like take out the chicken that was in the freezer, the deep freezer that just are reminders that you really gotta really be so detailed about your plans and stuff like that, especially like as someone um who forgets things super easily, or when I get like locked in, I just go and I sometimes forget to do simple things like eat and sleep and things of that nature, and those are basic needs. So when it's like things like make sure your music is exported the correct way, of course those things are gonna show up. So it's really awesome to have something that keeps me on track that um really helps me mix these songs in the way that's best for not only me, but also for the artists. Which speaking of which, the other thing that I've gotten the other thing that I've gotten as feedback was that I really need to make sure I mix for the artist and not for myself. I got so lost in the harmonies and the backups and I liked those so much that I neglected the basic role of just music editing and making sure the main lead was the main lead. Yeah. Which is like something that's so obvious, but I got so lost in the sauce, I would say, that by the time I was finishing these mixes, a lot of them were very unbalanced, and a lot of them were just like not sounding right or sounding good because backups were supposed to be backups. So yeah. And the main lead was supposed to shine, and because the main lead lead didn't shine at points, it left with some of the mixes sounding very, very much chaotic and unstructured. So that was one of the things that I had to really remember is that yes, as a singer, I can notice those harmonies and stuff, and I really enjoy those things, or like um sis like specific takes that I like, I could personally like, but I gotta remember that I'm not mixing for myself, I'm mixing for the artist and their audience, and the audience wants wants to hear the melody, they don't necessarily the harmony is literally just there to add more um liveliness or fill up the space of the track. So it was just one of those things that maybe maybe it is a simple basic thing, but it was something that because I was also that because I was excited about mixing and stuff, that I did allow myself to forget. Now, let's talk about our physical health. So I'm on a big weight loss journey, and I have lost 35 pounds, and I'm trying to lose 80 pounds in total, so I'm almost halfway there. Um, I want to be in the best shape possible, not much for aesthetics, even though I'm not gonna lie. Part of it is aesthetic a little bit. I feel like I'll be lying to you if I didn't say like there is a component of aesthetically, I would like to look a certain way that is definitely involved. That like some of my workouts is tailored to getting bigger arms and getting bigger um like glutes and things like that. But mainly though, it's about being physically fit and ready to perform when I step into the music industry at my best. Yeah. Um, and it's crazy because I remembered how you used to hate working out though. Right, I hated it like so much. Um if you asked like sixteen year old me um if if I could climb the Cahokia Mounds In Missouri, like if I could climb those mounds twenty-one times in in one like in one day in like two hours, I would think I was delusional. If he asked 16-year-old me if I could touch my toes, she would think, wow, you must have gone through a lot of pain for that. And if I told 16-year-old self that I could dance for hours at a time and not always feel like I'm seconds from dying, she would be like, That is impossible. And I actually find it insane myself, Loki. Yeah. That I do work out as much as I do because it it was so much there was so much healing that had to be involved, and so much also patience with myself that had to be involved for me to now find exercise like not only something that I could enjoy, but also something that really is like just a necessary part of my life. It's now just something that I know I just need to do. Yeah, I remember like when we first went to Cahokia Mounds in Illinois, I remembered how you almost looked defeated at some points. And I know if we could go back in time and show that girl to who you are now, I definitely know it would like change that girl's life in a way because you it took a lot of conversations and a lot of even tough love for you to really see what you had. Like you have the capability, and I definitely know like you have done so much and you're on this path, and I'm like really proud of you because you have grown so much from when we first went to Cahokia Mounds. You've grown so much. I appreciate that. Um and I'm just glad as well because stamina-wise, things have gotten better, um energy-wise, things have gotten better. Um, but I will say, like, I started this journey in like March, maybe February of this year, and even though I did lose a lot, because it's right now June, um, I still could have definitely done more um at this point, but the hardest part is the diet, and it's still very much a part that I'm still navigating through. But I will say, in when I came out of college, I was the heaviest I've ever been. I was like 195 pounds, and I was very unhealth unhealthy. I was not drinking water, like I was drinking teas. Um, I used to drink um spray and tea at the same time, and I would drink like tons of very sweet and very like sugary coffee, and I would rarely drink water, yeah. So I was severely like dehydrated, like and I tend to like especially at that time, it's still a problem that I'm facing right now, but back then I used to binge so much on the tr on the sweets, on the very spicy snacks. Um but I will say it's still like a battle though, because even now when I get emotional, like I still overeat. I still actually binge. Like every time I feel sad, I would just binge whatever I could find in front of me. Like I even binge on things like rice or bananas. Like when I would get sad. That's what happens, and I still am trying my hardest to drink two liters of water, but I will be honest with you, and I I barely get my average, the person's average sometimes, 64. Like I barely get sixty-four ounces in in a day.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

So it's still like those things keeping me from fully reaching my peak, but I am working on those things now, finding better ways to um manage those bad feelings, and I really am putting in a system in place to track my food and my water because I truly believe that I can lose all this weight by my birthday, which is October 8th. Um, but I would have never gotten to that place even with my diet if it wasn't for a book that I'm gonna be introducing in this series called The Fat Smash Diet by Dr. Ian Smith. Um, this book has actually been in the house for a long time. Yeah, I would say like ever since 2018, maybe at the earliest. Well, yeah. Well, the one that when we saw it, I because I remember seeing that book like around, but I never picked it up. That book has actually been like around, like been with with us with wherever we went to since I was alive. Yeah, so that would be 2005. Yes. So I baby. I just wanted to make sure the audience knew when we got this book. But yeah, no, but the first time I saw it, saw it was in 2018 because we were moving books and I was like, huh, that's an interesting looking book, and I put it away. Uh well, I didn't know that, but yeah, we actually had this book for a while. And both my dad and my mom um have looked through this book and tried their this diet themselves. And we were just talking earlier this year around January, and we were just talking about how if I wanted to make this change, because I was talking about how I wanted to lose this weight, how it is important I finally lose this weight, that I stop being obese and like I really get my life together. And we went through the different books and he suggested, like, hey, maybe check out this book, because this book literally has been in our family for a long time.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

Um, so but I never looked at it. Um, really. I've seen it around, but I never looked at it. And I lacked so much like information about my body and just science of food in general that in my mind I thought the only way to really lose this weight was to basically skip meals. Yeah. Not eat sugary things, even fruit, because I was thinking my sugar problem was so bad that I was like, I can't eat fruit because I feel like I'm just gonna binge on fruit, you know. Yes, I remember that. But dieting is so much more than just those basic things, and it's actually really cool to have read this book because I learned not only a lot about um food and my relationship with it, but also my body. So we're gonna talk about this book in particular more throughout the series of this podcast, but I did want to introduce it because since we're talking about things like structure and really executing um our plans for our futures, my part of my future is like me being fit, being in shape, and I think incorporating this into like this podcast is also very important, and another way to keep myself accountable because if I don't lose this weight by my birthday, then you definitely know I did not follow through on what I promised. So um yeah, before we close out, um, I just want to talk a little bit about Juneteenth, and while we are unfortunately not putting out the Juneteenth video on that we previously thought we were gonna put out on the Ali Bayou Arts website. For us, taking this alternative path and doing this extensive like internship is really how we are honoring our history. We are choosing to not go through our lives anymore aimlessly by building schedules, by fixing our health and mastering the skills of music and animation and from the ground up. And we are making sure that we don't let any of our old bad habits become a rhythm in our life, and we're doing that every day as we speak, breaking those habits, learning. Right. And so for this week as well, to honor really Juneteenth as well, um, we're going to instead of talking about a musician in particular, um, we want to talk about a little bit more about why Juneteenth matters, um, a little bit about what the story is. So not only do we choose to honor Juneteenth with our actions like you're saying, yeah, we can also just also talk a little bit about the story and hopefully have maybe someone out there look more into it and learn more for themselves because we are definitely not experts, we definitely do not know. Yeah, no, we're still we're researching about this till this day. Right. We're not experts, but we really want for our actions and to honor Juneteenth. Yeah. So yeah, like a lot of people actually don't know the story really behind Juneteenth. A lot of people think that slavery ended and everyone was like, Oh, we're happy and we accept black people again. Well, well, accept black people. And that's not what actually happened. When Abraham Lincoln signed the block proclamation that freed enslaved people, it actually was delayed for the people in Texas. Around two hundred and fifty thousand enslaved people in Texas did not know that they were free until a man named General Gordon Granger came down and actually let them know, like, hey, y'all f been free for two years. We just nothing's changed. And a lot of people don't actually know that. And I definitely know for me, even right now, I want to do more research about it because I don't really fully understand the story, but I do want to learn more about it because like that's like a shock to me because like I thought once the proclamation was signed, everyone was free, and that's how we got here. Like it surprises me that well, it doesn't surprise me, but it does seem just out of worldly that these people went two years without knowing that they were free. Went two years continuing to be enslaved and dealing with all of what came with it for for no for no reason. No purpose, no reason. No purpose, no reason, because they were free, but they didn't know that because n none of them down there, none of the slave owners was like, Oh, y'all free now. They were like, Yeah, no, you're gonna keep working, we're never gonna tell you, until that man, uh General Gordon Granger, who was like, Y'all been free for two years. Um, I just you know. Right, yeah. So that's why like Juneteenth is considered the true freedom day, because it celebrates the moment that every enslaved black person was freed.

unknown 34:49

Right.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

And we want to highlight this specific song, this classic track. So we're still gonna have a little bit of music today, but this specific track really spoke to us um in particular, that really em and how it really embodies like the spirit. So, what is our classic track? So, our classic track that we will be highlighting today is Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud by James Brown, a 1968 song. Mm-hmm. True anthem. Mm-hmm. A true anthem. This, like, this song changed everything when it came out. Um, at the time, even though new laws were passed to protect rights of black people, many people still face unfair treatment every day. And James Brown realized his power as a famous artist, and he used his songs to encourage listeners to stop feeling ashamed, stop feeling like sad about themselves, and start taking pride in who they are by featuring the children's voices in the song. He wanted to make sure the next generation knew that this song, what it speaks to is that your identity is something to celebrate, not to apologize for, something to love, not like not hate, and it gave an entire generation the strength to hold their heads high, to love their heritage, and to keep fighting for equality. Yes, I agree, because that's even how I felt listening to the song. Like it almost felt like James Brown was speaking my truth because I know there were certain spaces where I couldn't be loud and say I'm black and I'm proud. Right. And this song almost is like a reminder that I can and I shouldn't be ashamed of who I am. Right. And I shouldn't be so worried about saying that and feeling like I did something wrong for just saying I'm black and I'm proud. Right. So I really like that song and how it really like connects to everyone that's been facing injustice and stuff like that. Yes, exactly. So that is all that we have for this week's episode. If you want to stay on this journey with us as we learn these big life lessons, then make sure you hit that notification bell and you say subscribe and you listen to us whenever and wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Thank you again for rocking with us for episode four of Rhythm and Purpose. And we'll see you Monday. See ya. Bye. Bye. Happy Juneteenth.