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Random Heathen Ramblings: S5, EP11 - Animism Through Rhythm (feat. Matthew Serra) · Random Heathen Ramblings

• 0:00
  Hello everyone, and welcome to the Random Heathen Ramblings
• 0:03
  podcast, where we discussed all sorts of things Germanic
• 0:06
  Heathenry related. My name is Jesse.
• 0:09
  I am your host. Let's get into it.
• 0:32
  The Alvateer Workshop is dedicated to the old ways,
• 0:36
  offering a wide selection of animus, ritual supplies,
• 0:39
  divination tools, altered goods, and home decor, including
• 0:43
  premium reindeer hides imported from traditional herders in
• 0:46
  northern Finland. Whether you're just starting
• 0:48
  your spiritual journey or looking to expand your
• 0:51
  collection with a custom drum, we have everything you need.
• 0:55
  Visit our online store at the alvateer.com and discover the
• 0:59
  beauty of mountain spirit. All righty folks, we're back
• 1:05
  here kicking things off in Season 5 like it's it's we're
• 1:09
  just firing on all cylinders here.
• 1:11
  I'd like to say starting things off with a real Big Bang more
• 1:15
  lots of fun, hopefully good entertaining content for you.
• 1:17
  Coming down the pipeline today is going to be, I think a
• 1:20
  really, really thorough, really in depth episode.
• 1:24
  I've got a guest coming on here shortly.
• 1:27
  His name is Matthew Serra. He's, I'd like to call him a man
• 1:30
  of many talents, but he's going to be talking a bit more about
• 1:33
  what those talents are, his interests.
• 1:35
  Definitely Heathen kind of guy focuses on that side of of you
• 1:41
  know the spirituality path. So.
• 1:44
  But what we're going to be talking about with him today is
• 1:46
  animism through rhythm, or animism within rhythm and rhythm
• 1:50
  within animism and all the various ways that we can kind of
• 1:54
  connect with spirit, with the gods, with our ancestors, even
• 1:59
  through things like drumming and even other musics.
• 2:02
  I know he's got some other things that he's wanting to
• 2:04
  showcase today. So for those of you that are
• 2:06
  just listening to this podcast, you're going to be missing out
• 2:10
  if you're not subscribed as a as a Carl Tier patron on my Patreon
• 2:14
  that is just $1.00 to be able to catch these video episodes.
• 2:18
  So if you want to be able to see the stuff that you're hearing,
• 2:22
  head over to my Patreon. The link for that is in the link
• 2:24
  tree that is LinkedIn, the show notes of this podcast.
• 2:28
  I'm along with all of my other socials, so, you know, peruse
• 2:30
  through there, follow me, do all the fun things that the the
• 2:33
  social media algorithms kind of need to for them to function.
• 2:38
  But definitely on Patreon. If you want to catch the video
• 2:40
  versions of the podcast, do be sure to check that out.
• 2:43
  But Matthew's going to be talking a bit today with me
• 2:46
  about, you know, drumming about other musical endeavors.
• 2:49
  But he does, he has a he has a pretty rich background of all
• 2:53
  kinds of things. There's going to be some links
• 2:54
  in the show notes as well for Matthew.
• 2:57
  So while you're down there checking out my stuff, be sure
• 3:00
  to check his out as well. So yeah, I think that's enough
• 3:05
  of my housekeeping stuff to to get out of the way.
• 3:08
  So without further ado, let us welcome in Matthew Sera for this
• 3:12
  episode of the of the podcast. Here we go.
• 3:16
  You. Hey, what's up man?
• 3:18
  How's it going, man? It's going great.
• 3:20
  Thank you for being here. Thank you for wanting to come on
• 3:23
  and and share with us the world and everybody your various
• 3:27
  talents, interests and and and such so.
• 3:30
  Oh, it's my pleasure. I've been, I've been watching
• 3:32
  your podcast for a while now and I've been, I'm not even really
• 3:36
  like a podcast type of guy. I don't have that attention span
• 3:39
  to to sit and listen to a podcast or an audio book.
• 3:42
  But with yours, I just, I don't know, I I really connect to what
• 3:47
  you talk about and I really enjoy your stuff.
• 3:49
  And really the only podcast that I watch to be honest.
• 3:54
  I I appreciate that. You know, I never thought that
• 3:56
  the the content that I do when I first started this type of
• 4:00
  thing, like I didn't think that video content would would become
• 4:04
  a podcast. But here we are and here you are
• 4:07
  too with us. So I appreciate your support and
• 4:10
  thank you for reaching out and wanting to come on here to talk
• 4:13
  about animism through rhythm and kind of what all that means.
• 4:17
  So I don't want to, I don't want to take the the spotlight away
• 4:20
  from you being the guest. So if you wouldn't mind, just
• 4:23
  let people know kind of what you're about.
• 4:25
  I know you've got AI think, you got a website, you're into the
• 4:29
  performance arts, I think. And I've obviously got some
• 4:32
  drumming interests and and passions around you.
• 4:34
  So why don't you tell everybody a little bit about yourself?
• 4:38
  Sure. Hi, everyone.
• 4:39
  I'm Matthew Serra. I've been a performer my whole
• 4:43
  life. I've been acting my entire life
• 4:46
  and making music my entire life, and my music has gone through
• 4:52
  such of a a genesis and changes. And when I discovered Nordic
• 4:59
  Paganism, I found it through Hailung.
• 5:03
  And it was at a time where I was very where I think a lot of
• 5:08
  people actually find this path is when they're kind of like at
• 5:12
  a low point in their life and they're just looking for that
• 5:15
  thing to to to to really connect to that they haven't found yet.
• 5:21
  And my brother, who is not in any form spiritual or anything
• 5:25
  like that, he said, oh man, you I found this, this group on
• 5:28
  YouTube, you got to check him out and he showed me high loom
• 5:31
  and I was just blown away. I was like, this is the coolest
• 5:34
  thing I've ever seen in my life. So I started looking into them
• 5:38
  and what they were about and I had no knowledge of Nordic
• 5:43
  paganism before then. I mean obviously I knew I've
• 5:46
  heard the name Odin and Thor, but I never like looked into it.
• 5:49
  So getting into them and learning about, you know, how
• 5:54
  they make their music and where they find their lyrics from,
• 5:57
  cause a lot of them they don't make themselves their, their
• 6:01
  transcriptions and whatnot. I thought that was really cool.
• 6:03
  And then I started to learn more about Nordic paganism.
• 6:07
  And I was like, you know what? This is kind of interesting.
• 6:11
  Why don't I, like kind of give this a shot?
• 6:13
  But I was still kind of skeptical because 'cause I was
• 6:15
  never a a religious person, ever.
• 6:19
  And then I started doing the things and stuff started
• 6:24
  happening that, like, like, if things were being answered, I
• 6:27
  felt that I was being listened to when I prayed for the first
• 6:30
  time in my entire life. And I was like, this is this
• 6:32
  isn't supposed to actually, like work?
• 6:33
  Look what what's happening? Like, science is everything, You
• 6:36
  know? I saw them at the Red Rocks and
• 6:39
  that was kind of that was the that was the moment that I was
• 6:43
  like, OK, I listened to these guys for about four months now.
• 6:46
  But I can see what's really happening here.
• 6:48
  And if the gods are real and if they're anywhere, they're at
• 6:53
  this moment. I I think that was like 2021.
• 6:57
  And I was, I just became incredibly enamored with the
• 7:00
  music. And I said, I first started, I
• 7:02
  said, you know, why don't I? I wonder if I can make make.
• 7:06
  AI was a baby heathen, so I called it a Viking song, you
• 7:10
  know, it was all very romanticized in the beginning
• 7:14
  about Valhalla and and all that stuff.
• 7:16
  That's, I think that's how a lot of people start.
• 7:18
  So you started. Off.
• 7:20
  You started off where Peyton Parrish carried on.
• 7:23
  Yeah, yeah. Now we're here.
• 7:24
  And I think as long as you, you could start wherever, but as
• 7:28
  long as you like, realize like it's more than that and there's
• 7:33
  more to it, I think you're OK. But so I I I wanted to see if I
• 7:37
  could make something. So I made a song somewhat
• 7:42
  cringy. Did you ever see The 13th
• 7:44
  Warrior? Oh dude, I love the 13th
• 7:47
  Warrior. They had that that Viking
• 7:49
  prayer. Oh, there do I see my father and
• 7:53
  I and you know, in my baby heathen hey days, I I I would,
• 7:57
  you know go on Facebook pages and and people would put this up
• 8:02
  and no one really said it wasn't real And I was too young in my
• 8:06
  learning at the time to realize that it wasn't a real thing.
• 8:08
  So I put it into a song called Too Valhalla and it was this,
• 8:11
  you know, war band get at it type of song.
• 8:15
  And I do like that type of music that's like let's let's put it,
• 8:19
  you know, it's the heart pumping and stuff.
• 8:23
  Well, I do. Real, real quick though, Are you
• 8:26
  aware that even though that's not exactly word for word, what
• 8:30
  was said, Do you know that that that whole thing, that that
• 8:33
  Viking prayers, they call it whatever nowadays?
• 8:36
  Do you know that that is taken from actual source material?
• 8:41
  Did You Know? No, I I no, I thought it was all
• 8:45
  just written up for by the writers.
• 8:48
  So I don't, I don't want to take away from what you're what
• 8:50
  you're saying, but just as like when I interject.
• 8:53
  Something. You so if you've if you've never
• 8:56
  heard of so in the in the 13th Warrior the Antonio Antonio
• 9:01
  Banderas his character Abin Ahmed Evan Fadlan.
• 9:05
  Evan Fadlan, he was an actual person and his writings, I think
• 9:14
  it's called Evan Fadlan and the Land of Darkness and it's it's
• 9:18
  his actual he was a real person and it was his and his and it's
• 9:21
  his actual writings of documenting of his time spent
• 9:26
  amongst the Swedish ruse which were a tribe of Slavic quote UN
• 9:32
  quote Vikings, you know at the time and in the in his writings
• 9:37
  he witnesses the death and funeral rites of a ruse
• 9:42
  Chieftain. And during the ritual of the of
• 9:46
  his funeral, one of his slave girls is is is ritually unalived
• 9:51
  to accompany him in the afterlife.
• 9:57
  It's a very visceral description of what Ibn Fedlan witnessed.
• 10:01
  There was there was intoxicating beverages, There was she was
• 10:04
  basically passed around by men before she was, you know,
• 10:11
  sexually, I mean, so she was, she was used in that way.
• 10:14
  But after she was given this very toxic beverage or
• 10:18
  something, Ibn Fedlan describes something that she says prior to
• 10:23
  her expiring in life. And it's something similar to
• 10:26
  what is in the 13th Warrior. It doesn't come out exactly in
• 10:29
  those translations, but she says, you know, I see my family,
• 10:34
  I see these people, and I go now to my Lord, which is the
• 10:39
  Chieftain who is passing so that I can be with him in paradise
• 10:42
  and all these kinds of you. If you look it up online, even
• 10:45
  Fedlan in the Land of Darkness, you'll get more descriptive of
• 10:49
  than what I'm kind of just glossing over right now.
• 10:51
  But it actually is inspired by real documentation of what Evan
• 10:57
  Fedlan saw amongst the roofs. That is, that is awesome.
• 11:00
  That makes me feel so much better about that.
• 11:02
  Now that that's so cool. Yeah, oh man, that's that.
• 11:07
  You know, I've been, I've been learning different things from
• 11:08
  your podcast. I'm learning while being on your
• 11:11
  podcast. That's here we go.
• 11:13
  And this is a great time. Yeah.
• 11:16
  But when I first started making it, I said, you know, let's just
• 11:20
  see if I can do it. And then I started reading.
• 11:23
  I I started reading Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology, and I
• 11:27
  started learning about this stuff.
• 11:29
  And I said, oh, let me see if I can.
• 11:31
  Let me write something more particular.
• 11:34
  So I I wrote about the Fenririer, his the binding of
• 11:37
  Fenrir and the meat of poetry, which I really liked.
• 11:42
  That's one of my favorite tales. Is that Kvassir and the meat of
• 11:46
  poetry and all? That, yeah.
• 11:49
  Connects to me as a as an actor, musician.
• 11:53
  And then eventually I started. I I wanted to get to a point
• 11:57
  where I wasn't making music to see if I could do it.
• 12:02
  I wanted to make music to because this is a year or two
• 12:06
  later that I I felt was my way of honoring the gods and
• 12:11
  connecting to this this path and being more like one.
• 12:17
  With this this I'm finally starting to find a way to get it
• 12:21
  into a more animistic nature as opposed to just talking to the
• 12:25
  To the Gods and and then I I've had the idea I did something
• 12:32
  with the Volubspo that I've seen so many artists in Nordic folk
• 12:37
  music use scripts stances from the Volubspo but I never saw
• 12:43
  them like do it all the way through and I didn't do it all
• 12:49
  the way through but I did a lot of stanzas and but my idea was
• 12:55
  how can I do it differently than what other people have done it.
• 12:57
  You know, they they either speak it or they sing it.
• 13:01
  And my thought process was, well, if this was a story that
• 13:05
  was told probably to the a younger generation in that time
• 13:13
  by someone of an older generation, they probably acted
• 13:18
  it out in a in a in a theatrical way, like a like a live theatre,
• 13:23
  to teach how this story was done.
• 13:25
  So if I'm going to do something like that, I'd like to take my
• 13:28
  acting side and mesh it into my music side and do it in a way
• 13:34
  that teaches people how it might have been taught back in the
• 13:39
  day, just by acting it out through a vocal inflection, I
• 13:45
  guess you could say. And I thought that was a cool
• 13:47
  way to present the Vollop spell. So, I'm sorry, were you going to
• 13:54
  say something? No, I remember.
• 13:55
  I remember catching it. I don't remember if it was on
• 13:57
  YouTube or if it was on like another social platform.
• 14:00
  But I think I've heard your retelling of that of that poem,
• 14:07
  and I was really impressed. Just because it's you speak it
• 14:10
  in I forget is it English or if it's Old Norse?
• 14:15
  That one's Old Norse I got from Jackson Crawford.
• 14:19
  Yeah, but like the the just like you say, you know the the vocal
• 14:24
  inflections and just how you change your like the echoes and
• 14:29
  just how it how it sounds really kind of puts you in a in like a
• 14:32
  you can kind of close your eyes and you know picture something
• 14:35
  happening through your mind's eye in the way that you deliver
• 14:40
  it, right. Is it?
• 14:41
  Is it still available online for people if they want to check it
• 14:44
  out to? Yeah, I I, I put all that stuff
• 14:47
  on my YouTube and I just, I just created a SoundCloud channel to
• 14:50
  start to put all my music onto that, to kind of start making
• 14:57
  this more official as opposed to something that's just for me and
• 14:59
  for anyone who might like to hear it.
• 15:02
  Now I'd like to start trying to become somebody, I guess.
• 15:07
  Yeah. That's exciting.
• 15:09
  So you know as as always, people that are listening and watching,
• 15:12
  you know whatever is, whatever is available at the at the time
• 15:16
  of us releasing this episode that can point you in Matt's
• 15:20
  direction is going to be linked down below or in the show notes
• 15:23
  or wherever. So you know, definitely.
• 15:26
  You know, if you want a little taste of what Matthew's talking
• 15:28
  about, check his check his SoundCloud out, check his
• 15:31
  YouTube out and anything else that you see down there that
• 15:33
  that we put there. And thank you for that.
• 15:37
  And of course. So you have a name.
• 15:39
  Or a project that you're going to be going under?
• 15:41
  Or is it just kind of like your namesake Right now?
• 15:43
  You're not. Yeah, no, I actually, I thought
• 15:46
  a cool idea with being the fact that we live in North America.
• 15:52
  I was thinking about calling it Vinland from what the Norse
• 15:57
  called Newfoundland and and all this.
• 15:59
  Also, the hometown that I grew up in is called Vineland.
• 16:03
  So I always thought that was kind of cool.
• 16:05
  And I and it's not called Vineland because of the Norse.
• 16:08
  It's because we grow a lot of grapes in the the land of the
• 16:11
  vines and whatnot. But I just always thought it was
• 16:13
  like, oh, that's so cool. Like that's what they called the
• 16:16
  America before Christopher Columbus.
• 16:18
  So I I decided to go with Vinland.
• 16:23
  OK, nice. I was like, this is, I'm sure
• 16:26
  I'm not the only Nordic folk musician in America.
• 16:30
  I'm I'm sure. There's a few others.
• 16:33
  I would think that this is what Vinland has to offer is this is
• 16:38
  our our American Americans doing folk music.
• 16:43
  You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got you man.
• 16:46
  That's that's really cool. So you know, you talked about
• 16:49
  kind of finding your place in this path because of Highland,
• 16:55
  but obviously your music doesn't, it's not the same
• 16:59
  thing. It's it's the American version
• 17:02
  maybe. Like are there are there any
• 17:03
  other you know inspirations or or or sources that you take your
• 17:08
  source of inspiration from when it comes to your music?
• 17:10
  Yeah, obviously I love Wardruna, Einar Selvik I think is like, I
• 17:16
  can't remember who told me this, but he but they said Hailung is
• 17:20
  like a rave and Wardruna is like a a Symphony.
• 17:23
  It's like a a real they're they're like he's an absolute
• 17:27
  master of the craft and I think they're excellent actually.
• 17:32
  Got to meet some of the members and talk to a guy, one of them
• 17:39
  about playing Guca Horn and which is something I'd hopefully
• 17:43
  we can get to later in this podcast.
• 17:46
  But also I I like there's a French band named Skald.
• 17:52
  I like a lot you like them. I've enjoyed Atergo Loopy.
• 17:59
  I think they're from Italy, if I'm not mistaken and Nitland, I
• 18:05
  think they're Siberian. So it's cool that you get
• 18:10
  Scandinavian music from more places than just Scandinavia
• 18:16
  like just Norway, Denmark, Sweden, you you get France, you
• 18:20
  get Russia, which I guess can kind of fit into that Italy.
• 18:23
  I don't know if the if the if they ever made it to Italy back
• 18:26
  then they might have made it to Sicily but I don't know.
• 18:28
  But it's it's it's a it's a worldwide music that really, you
• 18:35
  know, everyone's all in this together.
• 18:38
  You know what I mean? It's it's it's it's something
• 18:40
  that can be shared with everybody from every nation, I
• 18:44
  guess. I think you could say.
• 18:45
  Yeah, I mean it's a universe. It's a, you know, music in
• 18:47
  general is a universal language. I think that everybody speaks or
• 18:52
  feels or is is, you know, resonates.
• 18:54
  It's, you know, we don't have to all like the same thing, but
• 18:58
  music, right? The the the performance of words
• 19:02
  with sound and everything, just it touches a part of our of
• 19:06
  ourselves that is hard to put into words.
• 19:08
  And I think that's a transcends normal conversation.
• 19:11
  And that's why we can listen to bands like Ailung or Neatland or
• 19:16
  any of these others who speak in languages that may be foreign to
• 19:19
  us or in some cases, like with Ailung, that are spoken in
• 19:22
  languages that are for all intents and purposes dead
• 19:25
  languages. They're not spoken in
• 19:27
  conversational ways anymore except maybe academically and
• 19:30
  and you know, reconstructing ancient languages, that sort of
• 19:34
  thing. So but Even so we find a place,
• 19:38
  you know, in our hearts for them and and it and it touches us in
• 19:41
  that sort of way. So, yeah, I mean there's there's
• 19:44
  so much, you know, so many people take the, the, the the
• 19:50
  the, you know, what do you call it like Nordic folk or or
• 19:54
  whatever genre you want to place in.
• 19:55
  And they and they put their own little twist or spin on it.
• 19:58
  You know. You know ward through it doesn't
• 20:00
  sound anything quite like NIT land, which doesn't sound
• 20:02
  anything quite like skull, which doesn't sound anything quite
• 20:05
  like, you know, Aeolia or or Skogram or or you know,
• 20:10
  Eldervock. Eldervock's another North
• 20:12
  American performer who. Yeah.
• 20:16
  Yep, Yep. You know, really, really
• 20:20
  knowledgeable when it comes to all of the.
• 20:22
  The tools, the software, everything that he does to put
• 20:24
  his music together. Plus he performs too.
• 20:26
  I mean, he plays the toggle heart, the drums, guitar.
• 20:29
  He's like a one. He's like a walk in one man
• 20:31
  band, it seems. Yeah, that guy's cool.
• 20:33
  I've, I haven't gotten to have a real real formal conversation
• 20:37
  with him. But I mean I've I've I'm a fan
• 20:39
  of his music and I've you know hey this is great Thanks man.
• 20:42
  But like I've never. I'd love to actually find out if
• 20:46
  there's a way to connect to other American Nordic folk
• 20:49
  musicians and see if there's a way to collaborate all of us
• 20:52
  together. I think that'd be a really cool
• 20:54
  idea. Well, I mean, I don't know if he
• 20:57
  watches this, but you know, Cody, if you're out there, here
• 21:02
  we go. Let's go.
• 21:04
  Let's go right. But do you, do you play other
• 21:06
  instruments? I mean, we're talking about
• 21:08
  music and perform, you know, performing music.
• 21:10
  What all instruments do you play?
• 21:12
  I started off playing guitar and bass and trumpet and then when I
• 21:19
  started doing Nordic Folk I I got a buca horn which is played
• 21:24
  just like a trumpet. So I was lucky enough to have
• 21:27
  that like intro to the actual physically how to play it, which
• 21:32
  is a very interesting music instrument in itself.
• 21:36
  And I would like I I got a drum as well because I'd like to I
• 21:42
  use a something called a VST that is like a computer, how to
• 21:48
  make all these different sounds and whatnot.
• 21:50
  That Dannheim is created called Asgard and that's how I've made
• 21:54
  all my music, but I would really like to be able to take it all
• 21:58
  of my instruments off of the keyboard and have them be real.
• 22:03
  So I think the next thing that I would really like to get is a
• 22:05
  Kravik Leer and then a Tangle Harpa.
• 22:09
  But right now all I can do when it comes to the Nordic folk is
• 22:14
  drumming and buka horn and throat singing.
• 22:17
  And then when it comes to everything else, I can play
• 22:20
  trumpet and guitar and bass. And I'm also, I've I've been
• 22:23
  trained in opera classically, trained singing as well from my
• 22:29
  yes, from my acting days. I wanted to, I did some work
• 22:34
  with a Broadway show and off Broadway and I've done a lot of
• 22:38
  musicals and stuff like that. So I've I've I've been trained
• 22:41
  how to sing operatically as well.
• 22:44
  Man. I I think it would be kind of
• 22:46
  cool if there's a way to take that and put it into this style
• 22:51
  of music, I'll I'll, I'll figure it out.
• 22:52
  I'm gonna figure it out then. Dude, I'll, I'll, I'll turn you
• 22:55
  on to a guy I I mentioned kind of in just in a passing comment
• 22:58
  before and I don't remember if I'm saying his name or the name
• 23:01
  of his Aeolia. It's Aeolia.
• 23:04
  It's like EOLYAI think he's French and but he does a lot of
• 23:12
  he plays guitar, mandolin. But man, dude, his voice is kind
• 23:17
  of like, I don't want to say it's not like Yaldeer or and and
• 23:22
  like, Inar Selvic. You know what I'm talking about,
• 23:23
  right, Yaldeer? He's got.
• 23:25
  Really curly hair. He's done some music on Vikings
• 23:29
  along with Inar too Or some of his music I think is has made it
• 23:33
  onto either there or like The Last Kingdom but they have that
• 23:36
  very very kind of like not trying to mock them please like
• 23:41
  don't get me wrong but anyway Aiolia or however you pronounce
• 23:45
  it he's not quite like that but he has a very powerful I almost
• 23:51
  want to say operatic like but just it's out there and and you
• 23:56
  know to look at him you would say wow this isn't you know your
• 23:59
  typical you know he's not your like long hair bearded scruffy
• 24:03
  like kind of guy. He's clean shaven got his hair
• 24:05
  cut short. Looks like he should be selling
• 24:07
  real estate you know what I mean Like but he's out here rocking
• 24:10
  it too man. Just doing really awesome music.
• 24:12
  I'll I'll link some of his stuff down in the episode too.
• 24:15
  But yeah man, it's it's so great to see people finding
• 24:19
  inspiration in in music and and that you've got all these ideas
• 24:23
  that you want to incorporate. It's gonna sound great, I think
• 24:28
  when you when you come up with it.
• 24:29
  Yeah, man, that that'd be really cool.
• 24:31
  And I have a lot. I'm standing on the shoulders of
• 24:36
  great, great people and I have a lot of people to thank for that.
• 24:41
  And I think that might bring us into our Our segment of someone
• 24:46
  I learned a lot from was Jacob Lund from High Lung.
• 24:50
  He also is in a couple of medieval type bands.
• 24:54
  I took a couple workshops with him, and one of the workshops I
• 24:57
  took with him in LA, he talked a lot of he he taught me how to do
• 25:03
  this animistic drumming technique, which I think would
• 25:09
  be a cool way to make music. And it's taking the sounds of
• 25:14
  nature and turning them into drum beats, and I think that's
• 25:20
  that'd be a pretty cool thing to talk about.
• 25:24
  Yeah, I actually have a I have a have a video that you shared a
• 25:27
  while back talking about that very thing or or showcasing that
• 25:31
  very thing you want to you want me to pop up, pop it up here for
• 25:36
  people to see and. Yeah, let's, let's, let's, let's
• 25:38
  see a little snippet and then I'll, I'll talk to people about
• 25:41
  it live, I guess. OK.
• 25:43
  So it's the full, it's the full video.
• 25:45
  So it's going to, it's going to be whatever you had shared, is
• 25:48
  that OK? Oh yeah, sure.
• 25:50
  Like 3-4 minutes maybe tops. If that.
• 25:52
  And I don't even remember. Is that cool?
• 25:54
  Yeah. All right.
• 25:55
  So everybody, this is again Matthew.
• 25:57
  Sarah, he's, he's, we're going to be kind of going into talking
• 26:00
  more about the animistic side of of music and then the rhythm,
• 26:04
  you know, and and and having that animistic spirit kind of
• 26:08
  reawakened. And so, yeah, this is something
• 26:10
  that Matthew's going to talk more about.
• 26:12
  So let's go ahead and watch it now.
• 26:14
  Hi guys, I'm Matthew. Sarah and I would like to share
• 26:21
  with you something that I learned at a drum workshop by a
• 26:27
  guy named Mr. Bom Bom. He's an excellent drummer and
• 26:39
  one of the things that he taught was how to take the rhythms from
• 26:44
  nature that you hear or the sounds from nature, I mean and
• 26:48
  turn them into rhythms that you can put on a drum.
• 26:52
  And I think that's pretty, pretty cool because if you're a
• 26:57
  part of this group, then you definitely, you definitely enjoy
• 27:01
  nature and you enjoy music. But maybe you're not a musician
• 27:07
  or maybe you are, maybe you are a drummer, maybe you're not.
• 27:10
  But it doesn't matter if you are a drummer or a musician or
• 27:13
  anything. I think this is just something
• 27:14
  that you can do to have fun if you want to take it that way.
• 27:19
  And if you're walking through a park or something like that or
• 27:23
  anywhere outside and you just hear something, whether it be
• 27:27
  the rustle of trees or or a wave or what I'm going to use as
• 27:30
  birds to kind of like play along with.
• 27:36
  So let's see what we can find out to hear.
• 27:44
  I don't know if you guys heard that.
• 27:44
  I'll play it again. What did you do?
• 27:55
  So on the drama we go, all that came from just a little
• 29:45
  birdie Look at all that fun we just had right there.
• 29:59
  And finally, here's just a really quick example of how we
• 30:02
  can take that beat that we found with the birds and turn it into
• 30:06
  a drum beat to create a song. So if you're a musician, get out
• 30:47
  there and just listen for the inspiration.
• 30:49
  And if you're just someone who likes sounds of nature that
• 30:54
  wants to join in on their conversation, you can go and
• 30:57
  just do that too. Wow.
• 31:03
  A little just a bird can turn into an orchestra of symphonies
• 31:12
  of of things. That's that's amazing.
• 31:14
  Yeah, just it's such a cool because like I get a lot of
• 31:20
  writer's block and sometimes like I'll I'll want to write
• 31:24
  something, but I just can't. I can't think of like what it
• 31:28
  what is it gonna, how does I start it how do I do that.
• 31:30
  And it's so cool to to know that I can just figure out how to
• 31:36
  start something by walking outside in the woods or just
• 31:40
  figuring it out that way and using the communication of of
• 31:45
  trees or animals, birds and the wind or the waves, even
• 31:50
  something from nature create art.
• 31:55
  You know, it's funny that we're talking about this like I
• 31:58
  remember back last year around it was like the Memorial Day
• 32:05
  week. So not the weekend before
• 32:08
  Memorial. So like end of or whatever it
• 32:10
  is. Yeah end of May or whatever
• 32:11
  Memorial Day is in the US here the we were, I was on the beach.
• 32:16
  I was down in Gulf Shores AL and the waves that were coming in it
• 32:23
  was like in the evening time, you know so it was kind of
• 32:26
  tranquil but you could still hear that you know that that
• 32:31
  just steady rhythm of the waves coming in and me and my my, my
• 32:36
  tribes go the like we were out there and he had his he had his
• 32:39
  big you know blowing horn that just I was drumming.
• 32:43
  And it was like we were in tune with the waves a bit like the
• 32:47
  the the the way that we performed the song that we sang
• 32:50
  wasn't anything that was pre written down like we didn't
• 32:54
  compose something for the occasion.
• 32:56
  We just went out there and was like let's see what it feels
• 32:58
  like. What does?
• 32:59
  What is the song that's being sung already and what can we do
• 33:02
  to be a part of that song, you know?
• 33:04
  Jamming with the with the Waves, man, that's awesome.
• 33:08
  That's it. They they speak to us, you know,
• 33:12
  like they're a mid guard. Whatever you want to call it, it
• 33:15
  speaks to us. If and we could just listen, we
• 33:18
  can create some cool stuff, you know, improvising with the with
• 33:23
  the Earth, you know, it's it's a very cool concept.
• 33:29
  Sorry, I'm not laughing. I'm coughing, 'cause I'm a
• 33:32
  terrible smoker and I need these things are gonna fucking kill
• 33:36
  me. Oh, that's cool, man.
• 33:38
  I'm. I'm glad you got to have that
• 33:39
  experience. I am too and I hadn't thought
• 33:42
  about it in that way until re watching and we're rewatching
• 33:48
  your video and then talking about it today.
• 33:49
  I'm like that was a living example of us doing it.
• 33:52
  And I'm not a musician. I don't write music.
• 33:55
  I don't put stuff together. I just get out there and feel
• 33:58
  things. You know what I'm saying?
• 34:00
  And but it's that's exactly like this stuff you were saying.
• 34:03
  Whether you're a musician or not.
• 34:05
  This is a way that you can legitimately connect through
• 34:09
  rhythm. You know it's already, it's
• 34:11
  already there. It's like the the the the script
• 34:15
  is laid down for us in a way. And I bet you can even, like,
• 34:19
  and I'm, I keep going back to birds just because it's such an
• 34:21
  easy, easy way to do this. You could probably communicate
• 34:25
  with them, like just by making some sort of sound, if it's the
• 34:29
  same sound that they're doing. I bet you they start talking
• 34:32
  back to you and you start having a conversation and you're like,
• 34:35
  oh, man, you can talk to birds. Like, yeah, that's you're
• 34:38
  basically Odin at that point, You know what I mean?
• 34:41
  Like. That makes you wonder if that
• 34:42
  was so much of A where like you know the magicians of old, the
• 34:46
  magic of old you know was was hyped up so much, right.
• 34:51
  People couldn't maybe they didn't have the the science that
• 34:54
  we have nowadays to to like put a name to something but they're
• 34:59
  the frequencies and and frequencies create a a form of
• 35:05
  communication, right. So whether it's, you know, like
• 35:11
  you say, whether it's birds or whether it's you know any other
• 35:14
  sort of gesture rhythm that's being made, I think there's
• 35:19
  there's definitely a a wavelength that we're kind of
• 35:21
  tapping into and yeah, we we we kind of become animal whisperers
• 35:28
  or something, you know we're. I was just before we started
• 35:35
  doing this, I was just 20-30 minutes ago I was looking up
• 35:38
  mycelium or my the mycelial network or something like that.
• 35:42
  And it's the frequencies of fungi and it talked to different
• 35:49
  things in the ecosystem and I thought and I and I was like oh
• 35:53
  what's the the frequency? And it's 100 Hertz.
• 35:57
  And I was like what does 100 Hertz sound like?
• 36:00
  And it's where where can I find that that's the that's what 100
• 36:14
  Hertz sounds like and I see Hai Lung Kai oh and false.
• 36:18
  When he does a lot of throat singing that's a that's a note
• 36:21
  that he hits a lot And I thought I was like oh shit, that's
• 36:24
  that's the the that sound is the the mycelium network Hertz
• 36:29
  frequency cool. Like I thought that was that was
• 36:33
  cool. Fascinating too.
• 36:34
  And it's funny we're talking about this now because even
• 36:37
  though like by the time people hear this you know you guys have
• 36:40
  already heard the the the previous week's episode wherein
• 36:43
  my guest and I on that episode talked about the micro razzle
• 36:48
  network mycelium, how everything is connected through.
• 36:53
  Like I forget what the measurements were but it's
• 36:58
  something like 1 cubic one cubic centimeter of of the mycelium
• 37:02
  network contains something like 8 miles worth of strands of
• 37:07
  things. It's like a very small
• 37:08
  concentrated space that contains 8 miles worth of fibers and and
• 37:15
  and just things that we can't see you know with the naked eye
• 37:18
  and how their their their communicators their their
• 37:21
  transmitters and and they're they're sending things and
• 37:24
  they're you know realigning things beneath our feet and just
• 37:27
  things that we don't see on a day-to-day basis.
• 37:31
  It's one of the ways that when we're out in nature when we're
• 37:35
  connected literally you know with our bare feet or skin or
• 37:38
  whatever touching the earth, touching the ground.
• 37:41
  It's why we're it's why we feel so good after the fact we're
• 37:45
  we're we're absorbing those, those negative pulses, those
• 37:48
  those negative frequencies from the Earth and it's quite
• 37:53
  literally charging us and tapping us into that that whole
• 37:57
  network of of mycelium. That sounds really, really
• 38:02
  interesting. I'm not blowing smoke up your
• 38:04
  ass. Like, I'm really excited to see
• 38:05
  what episode, because that sounds really cool.
• 38:07
  Yeah, these. These two are going to go hand
• 38:09
  in hand. Man, that's awesome.
• 38:10
  Yeah. It's really great that we're
• 38:12
  talking about this and then people that are listening and
• 38:14
  watching this are going to have gotten, have gotten that.
• 38:17
  You'll see it too, of course. Yeah.
• 38:18
  No, I'm yeah, I've been. That's that sounds sick.
• 38:23
  I'm really. Can't plan these things.
• 38:25
  It is. It's.
• 38:25
  It's so random. How?
• 38:27
  Like I don't. I yeah, sure, I I, I scheduled
• 38:29
  stuff out. But I had no idea that, you
• 38:31
  know, one episode with regards to, you know, the micro Rizzle
• 38:35
  network. Micro Rizzle Network and the Web
• 38:37
  of Weird would somehow tie into animism through rhythm.
• 38:40
  Yeah. Like I didn't plan for it to be
• 38:42
  that way. It just kind of it's fake.
• 38:45
  Made it. Yeah.
• 38:45
  Made it happen. That's how weird works.
• 38:48
  Yeah, Laurens are just been on our webs already.
• 38:51
  That's interesting. We we talked about that is
• 38:54
  earlier today. I wanted to go out to eat and I
• 38:58
  went to two. I was taking my girl out to two
• 39:01
  different places and both were closed and I was like, you know
• 39:04
  what, let me go to let's go to this place called the Ore House
• 39:07
  which is like a Celtic pub. And since we were on the way to
• 39:10
  the Ore house I I hit up my friend Eric.
• 39:13
  And I was like, hey, we're going to the warehouse like why don't
• 39:15
  you come out. And he was like, Oh yeah, it's
• 39:17
  it's interesting you say that I'll come out.
• 39:18
  I actually have something for you.
• 39:20
  And he came in any oh, you can't see it because of my thing.
• 39:29
  He got me this book called The Tales of Norse Mythology that he
• 39:32
  found two days ago at A Goodwill by Helen A Gerber.
• 39:38
  Hold it up to your like chest or your face, see if it'll.
• 39:40
  Oh, here we go. I have that exact book and I
• 39:43
  picked it up at a Barnes and Noble like six years ago.
• 39:45
  With this gold and the oh, it looks so cool.
• 39:48
  I'm so. Sorry, I think my copy is blue
• 39:51
  and gold instead of like I can go, but it's I think it's the
• 39:54
  exact same book. Yeah, yeah.
• 39:58
  By Helen A Gerber. And it looks, it's got pictures
• 40:01
  in it. Yeah, I need a book with
• 40:03
  pictures, like some pop ups. No, I just thought that was cool
• 40:08
  that, you know, because I couldn't go to this restaurant
• 40:12
  or this restaurant and I decided to go to this restaurant because
• 40:14
  I went to this restaurant. I hit up my friend who we go
• 40:17
  there a lot. And because I hit up my friend,
• 40:20
  he gave me this book today. And here we are doing this
• 40:23
  podcast. Yeah.
• 40:25
  That's that's weird. It is, it's.
• 40:27
  Very. It's weird.
• 40:28
  And then there's, you know, it happens a lot for me with other
• 40:31
  friends of mine where I'll be thinking of something or I'll
• 40:35
  say something to them and they'll be like, dude, shut up,
• 40:38
  you know, Like they just, like, I was just talking about
• 40:41
  something. Like and you know, we just get
• 40:42
  on this whole, you know, conversation that was sparked
• 40:46
  by, you know, two people in two totally different areas that had
• 40:50
  no, no prior connection talking about this topic.
• 40:54
  And somehow it becomes, you know, we're we're we're
• 40:56
  connected in that way. So it's.
• 40:58
  Doesn't that make you feel like I'm like like the the the norms
• 41:03
  were like putting me here? Like it makes you feel more
• 41:06
  connected to your your heathen path.
• 41:09
  It feel, yeah, it it definitely feels like, you know, the things
• 41:13
  that I'm talking about or feeling at a moment in time that
• 41:17
  I'm on, that I'm on the right path, you know, like it's very
• 41:20
  validating. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 41:24
  It is so. I think I always.
• 41:27
  I love that. I love it when that when that
• 41:29
  stuff happens. Yeah, I mean, we all kind of
• 41:31
  need it in a, you know, from time to time.
• 41:33
  I mean, if we're just kind of skating along and not getting
• 41:35
  any signals back, like, yeah, good, keep doing that, then you
• 41:40
  tend to, I think, fall into this sort of pit of despair like,
• 41:45
  well, then why even bother anymore?
• 41:47
  Why should I even be doing this thing that or the other if I'm
• 41:49
  not getting anything out of it, You know what I mean?
• 41:52
  Or I'm not feeling anything in return from it.
• 41:54
  Like what's the point, you know. So I think when we get those
• 41:58
  moments of wow, that's crazy, you know, that's so weird,
• 42:02
  right? That it it perhaps for some, for
• 42:04
  a lot of us it it's validating. Yeah, you know, I actually
• 42:11
  almost didn't learn any of this because when they were doing
• 42:16
  that, when High Loom was doing their last tour originally,
• 42:20
  excuse me, I was going to go to Chesterfield to meet Patrick
• 42:25
  Walson Walsh and see Heilung with them.
• 42:29
  And then some stuff fell through financially and I couldn't do
• 42:32
  it. And I was so like, heartbroken,
• 42:35
  like, Oh my God, I can't see Hailung this year.
• 42:37
  I was going to see. I was going to find my buddy
• 42:39
  Patrick, whom I've been talking to for like the past three
• 42:42
  years, just online. This sucks.
• 42:46
  And then I finally did get money and then High Loon posted the LA
• 42:50
  date and then I could go to that.
• 42:53
  And then I learned this stuff and I got to take workshops with
• 42:57
  Nick Shipper and Jacob Loons. And now because I did that, here
• 43:01
  I am, I I can have something to talk to you about.
• 43:04
  You know, it's it's cool how stuff works out and you gotta
• 43:08
  like just have patience, you know things are are happening on
• 43:12
  purpose, you know? Yeah.
• 43:15
  When you act with purpose and when you have, when you have
• 43:18
  that purpose in mind, you know, then things just kind of fall
• 43:22
  into place when they're supposed to not, you know, no, not
• 43:25
  forcing it, being purpose driven, right.
• 43:27
  Not just waiting for something like land in our laps, but
• 43:30
  taking the effort, doing the work and putting in the, you
• 43:34
  know putting in the, putting in the the, the, the miles so to
• 43:38
  speak to to get there. So the the LA ritual with
• 43:42
  Highland, you said that's where you pick this like finding or or
• 43:47
  listening to the sounds of nature and using that as your
• 43:51
  kind of rhythm. Yes, was that that?
• 43:54
  Jacob what? I took two workshops there.
• 43:56
  One with Nick Shipper, the the the ball drummer kind of looks
• 44:00
  like Kratos. I actually, a year before we
• 44:06
  were in they were at Brooklyn and I I was seeing them at
• 44:09
  Brooklyn. I was right up front and him and
• 44:12
  I kind of like locked eyes throughout them in the middle of
• 44:15
  the ritual. And then at the end he, he likes
• 44:17
  to take his drum out and during hammer or hip here and he will
• 44:22
  go up to the audience. And he went up to me and he like
• 44:24
  locked eyes and he got in my face and I'm just like, let's
• 44:27
  go, let's go, let's go. And he takes his drumstick and
• 44:29
  he pushes it into my head like some sort of blessing thing.
• 44:34
  And I was like did everyone just see that did you guys?
• 44:37
  I was so cool, man. And then I got to finally like
• 44:40
  meet him and I told him about that and he was like oh man,
• 44:43
  that's it's all a blur. I remember doing that to two,
• 44:46
  two times in the whole tour. But you know, so I don't
• 44:48
  remember when it happened but if one of them was you, that's
• 44:51
  cool. I I have a cool story about
• 44:54
  about that workshop where I learned about ego and it would
• 44:59
  had nothing to do with ego. Both of these workshops I went
• 45:03
  into thinking I was going to learn cool drum stuff and I
• 45:05
  learned more stuff about myself which was really interesting.
• 45:09
  So and I can Is it cool if I just, you know, go into story
• 45:14
  time? Yeah, yeah, please.
• 45:16
  It's all it's all connected, yeah.
• 45:17
  Yeah, so I was. I was so excited to start Nick
• 45:24
  Shipper's workshop. He calls it a suruna, which
• 45:28
  means like I think it meant like continuous or evolving energy or
• 45:31
  something like that. I can't really remember, but he
• 45:35
  did. He started off really cool where
• 45:37
  he smudged the room and then we all got into a circle and we
• 45:41
  were huddling up and he just goes.
• 45:45
  And then everyone's all same and we all start moving in a circle
• 45:50
  and then we stop and we start moving in a circle the other way
• 45:52
  and all breathe in the same and he stops everything, he said.
• 45:55
  Now listen, I didn't tell anyone to do anything, but we were all
• 46:00
  connected and all did the same thing.
• 46:03
  We all knew when to how to breathe and went and move and
• 46:06
  then this and this is what this is about.
• 46:08
  This workshop is about finding togetherness.
• 46:11
  And so I thought I was like, oh that's cool, this is a good way
• 46:13
  to start. So we start.
• 46:15
  We did a multiple different drum circles, but I really, I kind of
• 46:18
  really messed up in the first drum circle because he started
• 46:21
  playing a rhythm and then everyone started playing a
• 46:24
  rhythm and we were all playing the same rhythm.
• 46:26
  And I closed my eyes and I got and I was just like, oh man, I'm
• 46:30
  really feeling this like I'm going to, I'm going to change it
• 46:33
  up. I'm going to like, I'm going to
• 46:35
  play a different rhythm that matches with this rhythm.
• 46:38
  It's going to sound cool. And so I people are playing like
• 46:41
  duh, duh, duh, duh and I'm like dum dum dum dum, dum dum.
• 46:46
  It matches the rhythm, but it's doing something different.
• 46:50
  And I open my eyes and I see him staring at me right in my face,
• 46:54
  like playing the same rhythm as everybody else.
• 46:56
  Like, hey, asshole, like, get what?
• 46:59
  I'm stop being like a Dick right now.
• 47:01
  And I fucking like, Oh my God, Nick Shipper from Hailung hates
• 47:06
  my guts. He thinks I'm a piece of shit.
• 47:09
  This is terrible. This is terrible.
• 47:13
  Oh man, he scolded me without saying anything.
• 47:16
  And then after the drum circle, he was like, yeah, sometimes,
• 47:19
  you know, you'll get those people that are like.
• 47:21
  Look at me. And stuff like that.
• 47:23
  And you know, and you got to ask, you know, are you drumming
• 47:25
  for us or are you drumming for yourself?
• 47:27
  And I'm just like, Oh my God, he's fucking like he's laying
• 47:31
  them on me right now because I did wrong.
• 47:33
  Like the the the workshop was about being together and I kind
• 47:36
  of like took my own wants and needs of like having fun and was
• 47:42
  like I'm drumming for myself and I'm not drumming for everybody
• 47:46
  else. And it was, it was a lot about
• 47:48
  like checking your own ego without him.
• 47:51
  And that's like kind of like a it was like a between the lines
• 47:54
  learning moment for me of how to check myself before I wreck
• 47:57
  myself, kind of deal. And that I need to keep my own
• 48:03
  bravado, I guess in check to just connect to everybody else
• 48:08
  instead of like have everyone have me work me stand out.
• 48:13
  You know what I mean? Yeah.
• 48:15
  That was a really cool lesson. And like I at the end of the at
• 48:18
  the end of the workshop, we were all sitting there talking.
• 48:21
  I was like guys like, I want to apologize.
• 48:23
  And I think that like kind of, it probably was like it felt
• 48:28
  like he was like, all right, yeah, he gets it.
• 48:29
  You know. I'm not.
• 48:30
  I'm not going to like, you know. Shame.
• 48:32
  Into that, Yeah, yeah. And then we were talking and it
• 48:36
  was all cool. But that was a really cool it
• 48:38
  was it was cool to. He taught us other things, like
• 48:41
  where we should hold our drum based on our body and the size
• 48:44
  of our drum, so that we can play for extended amounts of time
• 48:47
  without, like, having the tension hurt us and whatnot.
• 48:50
  And he got some cool things like that.
• 48:54
  Yeah man, 'cause some of these things get are are heavy.
• 48:56
  I don't like over here. It's kind of out of frame, but
• 48:59
  you can kind of see a little bit of it.
• 49:00
  Right over here is a 38 inch round Goat Hyde drum workshop.
• 49:07
  Now, yeah, like hold that, like anywhere above your chest for
• 49:14
  any length of time and your arm starts just you get wore out.
• 49:18
  If the sucker's heavy. I mean it is.
• 49:20
  So it's like there's there's plenty of times where I've
• 49:22
  played it and I'm like I need to switch hands or I need to like
• 49:25
  sit down or something. Because you do.
• 49:27
  You don't. You don't find that sweet spot.
• 49:29
  You're just you're it'll fatigue you quickly.
• 49:33
  Yeah. And so that was a really he
• 49:35
  would he just saw it in your body and he and he tapped, he
• 49:38
  touched like a part of your body and he was like relax this,
• 49:40
  relax this, relax this, bring this down here.
• 49:43
  It was he's brilliant. But another thing he said that I
• 49:46
  thought that I thought really really stood out was he said the
• 49:52
  frame that your drum made out of used to be a tree.
• 49:55
  That tree died so that you can have a frame for your drum.
• 50:00
  The animals hide. That creates the hide of your
• 50:04
  drum. That used to be an animal that
• 50:05
  had thoughts. It died so that it could become
• 50:08
  your drum, The sinew that holds the back of your drum, the the
• 50:11
  stick that is your beater. And all these things used to be
• 50:16
  alive. Respect them so that like
• 50:21
  because now they've died and they've lived and died just so
• 50:24
  that they can become that thing that you're holding in your
• 50:27
  hand. Have respect for that piece of
• 50:30
  of. Life.
• 50:31
  Really. Life.
• 50:32
  Yeah. Yeah, it is.
• 50:35
  That's in a sense, would you, would you say that's a form of
• 50:39
  animism is your own drum in itself.
• 50:42
  Yeah, you know, I mean that's like one of the things and it's,
• 50:45
  you know, it's crazy just getting talks like this is is
• 50:50
  always like I'm always happy to talk about stuff like this
• 50:52
  because it is such a a a soft. I have such a soft spot for it,
• 50:56
  but it's been like in running like almost every episode in
• 51:00
  season 5 so far has had some form of discussion of with
• 51:05
  animism surrounding it. But one that sticks out in my
• 51:08
  mind very clearly was with JM Olson, a fi Alvatir workshop.
• 51:11
  We were talking about the idea of you know what animism means
• 51:17
  and that it's, you know, it's not just thinking that you know
• 51:20
  casually, right? That sure I guess everything has
• 51:22
  spirit. But connecting with spirit that
• 51:27
  does exist and everything and realizing that just because just
• 51:31
  because this drum is a drum does not take away from.
• 51:34
  So this is a bison skin drum right.
• 51:35
  So the spirit of the bison lives on the the frame is Birch.
• 51:40
  The spirit of the Birch lives on.
• 51:43
  You know the the the sinew is is deer.
• 51:45
  There's buckskin you know the beater is made from Maple.
• 51:49
  So the the the spirit of the Maple tree.
• 51:53
  There's horse hair on the tassel, so the spirit of the
• 51:55
  horse, right? There's a there's a goat skin
• 51:58
  wrapped around the handle. The spirit of the goat, right.
• 52:02
  It's not just a drum. It's not just a beater.
• 52:04
  These are the life lives on and their their power, their life
• 52:11
  comes through when we when we connect with them, when we play
• 52:15
  with them, when we resonate with them, right?
• 52:18
  That doesn't that. Shit.
• 52:19
  You so like like, oh, like, that's so cool.
• 52:22
  You know, like it's like, Oh my God.
• 52:25
  That's why I love all of the thing all of the things that
• 52:28
  I've had like up here is is a the the sound quality is
• 52:34
  probably shit. But you know this is bear skin.
• 52:38
  You know this is our ritual. This is a ritual hammer from my
• 52:41
  tribe because we're the Thunder people and we you know, Thor is
• 52:44
  a big guy for us. So you know, our ritual rattle
• 52:47
  is shaped like a Paleolithic hammer and but that's bear.
• 52:52
  Yeah. It's power.
• 52:54
  That's, that's, you know, the spirit of the bear goes on with
• 52:57
  this. It makes it does.
• 52:58
  It's not a it's not like a little soft rattle either.
• 53:00
  It's like. Rocks.
• 53:02
  Yeah, you know it's it's crazy. Sounds like Sounds like rain
• 53:06
  when you're. Shaking.
• 53:07
  I can hear it. I can hear it.
• 53:08
  Shake it up a bit. Let me a little close to the
• 53:12
  mic, maybe. Maybe.
• 53:15
  I heard it a second ago. I'm sorry.
• 53:17
  Oh, there you go. There you go.
• 53:22
  This mic is kind of weird so that.
• 53:23
  Yeah, yeah, that. All of those things that are
• 53:27
  behind you used to be alive, you know, and.
• 53:30
  They still have life. That's just it.
• 53:32
  Their their, their form of life has has changed, just like our
• 53:35
  form of life changes. You know, this physical thing
• 53:38
  that you and I know each other as and see each other as isn't
• 53:41
  going to be around forever, has an expiration date.
• 53:43
  Doesn't mean that we would. We as ourselves, who we truly
• 53:46
  are, continue to exist in some shape and form, right?
• 53:52
  Same with these things. These are all.
• 53:55
  I don't look at these things as any less alive than me.
• 53:58
  Yeah, like they have a life. They have a spirit.
• 54:00
  Have respect for those things. Don't like leave.
• 54:03
  It in around you know, nearly you know.
• 54:07
  Know what? You're what you're playing.
• 54:09
  Oh, man. That's.
• 54:10
  Oh, man, I love this. I love this.
• 54:12
  Man this. I'm having fun.
• 54:13
  You having a good time? You having a great time?
• 54:17
  Oh man. What you you talked earlier
• 54:20
  about some kind of horn I can't remember the name of?
• 54:25
  It. Buca horn.
• 54:26
  Yes. Was is that goat or or?
• 54:30
  It's RAM. RAM.
• 54:33
  So this let me hold it. If I hold it here, I want to be
• 54:37
  cold in this background, but it's kind of making me mess up
• 54:40
  stuff. So this is a low pitched buca
• 54:43
  horn. Let me It's about not that that
• 54:49
  long. So about the.
• 54:52
  About average. My body, it's about average.
• 54:56
  It's very nice. I love this horn so much one
• 55:05
  because it's it's a real thing. It's not like it's not plastic
• 55:09
  and this can't be mass produced. This is this is from a real RAM
• 55:15
  and you and the person that I got this from the only can be in
• 55:20
  business like a couple months of the year because that's when I
• 55:24
  mean it takes, one, it takes a long time to make, but two they
• 55:26
  they, you know, they don't have all these Rams to to sacrifice I
• 55:31
  guess you. Gotta you gotta be ethically,
• 55:34
  ethically sourced. Right, and there's two different
• 55:38
  types of bucha horn. There's a high pitched and a low
• 55:40
  pitched. I went with the low pitched.
• 55:43
  That's the one that you'll you'll see Inar Selvic play a
• 55:46
  lot. I think it's most featured a
• 55:50
  song is called Vard Block. I believe it's pronounced and I
• 55:56
  it's it's got a very forlorn type of feel to it.
• 56:00
  It's a a low type of thing. I actually was looking up a
• 56:04
  story. There's something called the.
• 56:08
  I'm going to refer to my notes real quick, the Battle of
• 56:10
  Kringen in 1612, where the Swedes hired a Scottish army who
• 56:19
  I think they were going to go through Norway and and then join
• 56:22
  them in Sweden. And there was a bunch of
• 56:25
  Norwegian farmers who wanted to do some guerrilla warfare and
• 56:30
  stop this. So they had a girl named Prela
• 56:33
  Guri go to the top of a mountain.
• 56:36
  And then they had like I guess they were in some sort of valley
• 56:39
  or something where there was a river where the the army was
• 56:41
  coming through and all these farmers like got a bunch of logs
• 56:45
  on one of the side of the valleys on like the upper part
• 56:48
  where the army couldn't see. And then she was like their
• 56:51
  lookout and she played this this horn and they pushed all the
• 56:55
  logs and just through them and and rolled this army up and and
• 56:59
  messed them up. And I I I thought that was a
• 57:02
  kind of cool like little like history lesson of of bucha horn
• 57:05
  where this stuff where this came from.
• 57:08
  But I wanted, I I wanted to see if I could play this because
• 57:12
  sometimes it lets me play it and sometimes it doesn't.
• 57:16
  And I thought that was just a me thing and maybe I'm not good
• 57:20
  enough at it and I'm not great at it.
• 57:22
  But I when I saw Wardroona in Brooklyn, he even had trouble
• 57:27
  playing it. And he there's a video of him
• 57:30
  talking to people where he's talking about this horn.
• 57:34
  And he says sometimes it sounds beautiful and sometimes it
• 57:37
  sounds like I'm playing a sick cow.
• 57:39
  So I want to. So the way that you play it is
• 57:42
  very similar to it has a little like mouthpiece on it.
• 57:46
  Sometimes it comes with a mouthpiece, sometimes it doesn't
• 57:48
  mind us. And the way that it's it's the
• 57:51
  similar is like playing a trumpet.
• 57:53
  So you put your top lip over your bottom lip like this and
• 57:58
  you make this like buzzing sound.
• 58:00
  This. Yeah.
• 58:02
  And then and I was kind of getting some
• 58:25
  notes out of it but it's it's also cool like there you can
• 58:30
  bend the the lowest note by like putting your finger in here so.
• 58:34
  Oh, I see. But you can't do that with any
• 58:43
  of the other notes. I don't know why it's like that,
• 58:45
  but I really like this thing. It's it smells farmy.
• 58:54
  I guess you could say it's it's got a very cool like when it
• 58:59
  works for you it it it's got a it makes your your your whole
• 59:03
  like mouth vibrate with the horn itself And it it kind of puts
• 59:08
  you in like somewhat of a trans state of mind when you're
• 59:13
  playing it because it's something that you're not
• 59:15
  playing with your hands. So like it takes your whole body
• 59:20
  your whole like respiratory system to to play and make this
• 59:24
  sound as opposed to just hitting a drum or playing a guitar.
• 59:28
  You have to like do more to it to create this this sound and I
• 59:31
  just really like the it's it's fun it's it's it's one
• 59:50
  of my favorite Nordic instruments.
• 59:53
  I I really enjoy the it's kind of sad.
• 59:58
  It's it it it makes me. It's it.
• 1:00:00
  It gives me like a sad tone in the way.
• 1:00:02
  I don't know. Yeah there's like a melancholy
• 1:00:04
  or forlorn own to it. But I you know man.
• 1:00:09
  Like it does like it has it's I can imagine like from from what
• 1:00:16
  few like ox horns that I've blown it It's not so much about
• 1:00:20
  and and you guys be nice in the comments like what I just said I
• 1:00:25
  just realized what I just said how many ox horns have I blown.
• 1:00:29
  But anyway, the it's it's not how much air you expel.
• 1:00:36
  It's it's more technique you know.
• 1:00:38
  So it's not like you're just like and just giving it hell,
• 1:00:43
  there's there's more of, you know, breath control posture,
• 1:00:47
  you know, the pressure on that you put on the on the on the
• 1:00:52
  mouthpiece and stuff. I mean it's it doesn't sound
• 1:00:55
  like it would be a very technical instrument to play,
• 1:00:59
  but there are technical parts to perfecting it, I'm sure and
• 1:01:03
  getting it, you know, And then even how good you might be,
• 1:01:06
  like, you know, for like you were saying with Inar, he's
• 1:01:09
  like, well, I guess it just isn't going to be nice today.
• 1:01:13
  And you know, he kind of like sometimes doesn't.
• 1:01:19
  Yeah man, it's it. It decides when it wants to be
• 1:01:22
  played and I appreciate it for letting, not making me look
• 1:01:25
  stupid on camera, you know? You imagine, though, you imagine
• 1:01:28
  like the first, whether it was, you know, from the story that
• 1:01:32
  you told or whether it was somebody before you mentioned
• 1:01:35
  the first person that was like, I'm taking this thing out to, to
• 1:01:37
  battle to like really mess with people's heads.
• 1:01:40
  And they're going to hear this, this powerful horn getting blown
• 1:01:43
  across the field. And then, you know, they got
• 1:01:46
  that in their mind. And then they go out there and
• 1:01:48
  it sounds like just. Let's go to them.
• 1:01:53
  English, you're like, the fuck is it?
• 1:01:57
  You know, Yeah, man, that. Have you have you heard the
• 1:02:00
  Carnix? Is that that big like?
• 1:02:03
  Yeah. Looking thing sounds like yellow
• 1:02:06
  horn being blown across the beef frost.
• 1:02:08
  Just Oh my God, dude. Oh, it's awesome.
• 1:02:12
  Oh, that thing to get. My hands on one of those.
• 1:02:15
  I I Googled it. I Googled it.
• 1:02:17
  I think I saw one for like $12,000.
• 1:02:19
  I'm like, get the fuck out of here, man.
• 1:02:21
  Like that's insane. Oh man.
• 1:02:24
  Or and get one of those. Yeah, I think like Kravic Leers
• 1:02:27
  are also like, like I was saying like 5 to 8 grand.
• 1:02:30
  I'm like, Oh my gosh. Like this cost me like $450.
• 1:02:35
  And like, I don't know, it's kind of expensive, but like,
• 1:02:38
  it's gonna last. It lasts forever.
• 1:02:40
  It's was one of the things like, you'll pass this down to your
• 1:02:44
  children's children's. Children's.
• 1:02:47
  Because it's a bone, right? Yeah, it takes.
• 1:02:51
  There's very little, you know, maintenance and what maintenance
• 1:02:53
  you would have to keep up even your drums, you know like JM who
• 1:02:59
  makes all the ones that I own and that are part of the tribes
• 1:03:03
  relics. He's like, you know, whatever,
• 1:03:06
  you know, sandalwood oil is good.
• 1:03:08
  He's like basically whatever natural oil you would put on
• 1:03:11
  your own skin is safe for these things to keep, you know.
• 1:03:15
  So it's very low maintenance and it's all natural stuff.
• 1:03:19
  So it's not like you got to like like my mom had a piano when we
• 1:03:23
  were kids growing up and I remember she would get a guy to
• 1:03:25
  come by to tune the piano every so often.
• 1:03:30
  And it was like an hour and a half of just Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun
• 1:03:33
  Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun.
• 1:03:36
  It's like son of a would you play a fucking song already?
• 1:03:40
  Like, enough of this. Just like it was so annoying
• 1:03:47
  there for the for the longest. It ain't like that with these
• 1:03:49
  things, you know, You just take care of them like you would take
• 1:03:52
  care of yourself. Right, yeah.
• 1:03:57
  Something I wanted to talk about that I also learned at Jacob
• 1:04:03
  Loon's workshop was he did something called a drumming
• 1:04:05
  ritual. So we're in a small room that's
• 1:04:09
  surrounded by, like, gongs on the walls, and he said what I
• 1:04:14
  want you to do. And my shaman taught me this was
• 1:04:18
  I want you to lay down all of you and close your eyes and I
• 1:04:21
  want you to think of a question and I'm going to play the drums
• 1:04:25
  for you. And eventually you just clear
• 1:04:29
  your mind off just that question and it's going to and the answer
• 1:04:33
  is going to come to you And and this is something I thought was
• 1:04:36
  cool. I was like, I don't really know
• 1:04:38
  what question I should ask. So I was like, Jacob, I don't
• 1:04:40
  know. You know, what should I ask?
• 1:04:42
  What should I ask? And he's.
• 1:04:43
  And he was like, well, why don't you, you know, think of what,
• 1:04:46
  what's the next song I should make?
• 1:04:48
  I was like, OK, cool, yeah, I'll do that.
• 1:04:51
  And so I laid down and I was just thinking, what's the next
• 1:04:54
  song I'm going to make? And he starts to playing.
• 1:04:56
  And he's got this, this, this huge, huge, huge drum, like,
• 1:05:00
  biggest drum I've ever seen that has actual, like goat hair on
• 1:05:03
  the drum, like on the actual hide.
• 1:05:06
  And it's just very deep. And then he's playing so much
• 1:05:09
  that the gongs itself start to play along with them without
• 1:05:12
  being touched, just from the vibrations.
• 1:05:14
  It's making this really cool, like well, well, well or
• 1:05:19
  something. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:05:22
  And eventually my conscious hit me and was like, what song?
• 1:05:29
  You think I have a hold of you now?
• 1:05:31
  We're not going to talk about what song.
• 1:05:33
  You're something as trivial as what song I'm going to make.
• 1:05:35
  I'm going to talk to you about the things that I really need to
• 1:05:38
  talk to you about, that you've been like, hiding from.
• 1:05:41
  That's like, glocked into your, like, subconscious, your real
• 1:05:44
  traumas. We're going to talk about the
• 1:05:45
  problems that you have in life. We're going to talk about, like,
• 1:05:48
  what you're doing wrong, how you going to fix it.
• 1:05:51
  And like, that's what was like coming out of me.
• 1:05:54
  And I was, Oh my God, like I wasn't prepared for all that.
• 1:05:57
  Like I I don't think of a song you know, and.
• 1:06:01
  That it? What am I going to wear on
• 1:06:02
  Tuesday? Yeah, it pulled out.
• 1:06:04
  It was like, how dare you think of something so trivial?
• 1:06:07
  This is like it's my time. Like it's my subconscious.
• 1:06:10
  It's time to to take over and tell my conscious this is you
• 1:06:14
  know what we got to work on right now.
• 1:06:17
  And and one of the things was I I wanted to, I wanted to start
• 1:06:23
  getting back into shape because I I'd let myself go much bigger
• 1:06:26
  than what I usually AM. And that's one of the things
• 1:06:28
  that came up during this drum, which was like as an actor, you
• 1:06:32
  kind of have to, you know, be in shape and stuff.
• 1:06:34
  And so I was like, you got to start, like there was other
• 1:06:38
  things, but I just thought it was really a a cool thing that I
• 1:06:42
  went into these workshops thinking I was going to learn
• 1:06:44
  one thing and then learning more important things about myself
• 1:06:50
  instead of just how to drum. And I think if if you have the
• 1:06:55
  opportunity to go to one of the workshops by either of these two
• 1:06:59
  great men, you really have to take that opportunity because
• 1:07:04
  they they're they're they're very smart and they're they'll
• 1:07:08
  teach you drum stuff too. But you're going to learn more
• 1:07:12
  important things than you realize.
• 1:07:15
  And I mean, I'm not saying this because like I I get a cut of
• 1:07:18
  their of their profits or anything like that.
• 1:07:20
  I'm just like you guys that are listening.
• 1:07:24
  I know that they're coming around for their last tour in
• 1:07:26
  North America for years, which I'm a little sad about, but I
• 1:07:30
  get it. You know, they've been touring
• 1:07:31
  so much. If you have the chance to go to
• 1:07:34
  one of these workshops you better you better jump on that
• 1:07:37
  chance because these are things that you're going to take with
• 1:07:39
  you for for a long time and then not just about how to drum.
• 1:07:44
  It's about you know being a better you as well.
• 1:07:48
  And I don't even think they know that that's what they're
• 1:07:50
  teaching. But that's what's going to
• 1:07:52
  happen to you. They're it's it was so cool,
• 1:07:55
  dude. And I almost I almost didn't
• 1:07:57
  even get to I I thought I was going to go.
• 1:07:59
  I got got stopped in the airport.
• 1:08:01
  I was taking, I was at the Philly airport to go to LAX and
• 1:08:07
  I'm in customs and they they're taking a long time with my carry
• 1:08:12
  on book bag. And I'm like, what are they
• 1:08:14
  looking for? You know, I do have a charger
• 1:08:17
  maybe they're like making sure that there's nothing wrong.
• 1:08:19
  And they say, Sir, did you, did you bring a bottle of Cologne
• 1:08:22
  with you? I said a bottle of Cologne.
• 1:08:24
  No. I don't have a bottle of Cologne
• 1:08:26
  in my book bag. He said, Are you sure?
• 1:08:28
  I said, yeah. He said, well, did you did you
• 1:08:30
  bring a bomb into your book bag? Oh.
• 1:08:32
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. I did bring Cologne.
• 1:08:35
  Yeah, I got some C4. I'm like, no, no, I didn't bring
• 1:08:39
  a bomb under my book bag on the carry on, he says.
• 1:08:42
  Do you have a grenade in this bag right now?
• 1:08:44
  I said what the what is happening?
• 1:08:46
  We went from Cologne to explosives like.
• 1:08:48
  Yeah. Why is the TA?
• 1:08:50
  Why is this TSA agent asking me if I have a bomb on the on my if
• 1:08:54
  I'm trying to bring a bomb on an airplane and you and I look at
• 1:08:57
  the at the screen and clear as day, there is a grenade in my
• 1:09:00
  bag and freeze freeze. Six months ago, before this
• 1:09:06
  plane trip, my, my girlfriend's son is, is a firearms enthusiast
• 1:09:12
  and he had this, this, like, decommissioned grenade that all
• 1:09:16
  the everything's out of it. It's just like a cool grenade.
• 1:09:17
  He was like the paperweight. I love this thing.
• 1:09:20
  Like, you check this out. You think this is cool?
• 1:09:22
  I was like, Oh yeah, this is kind of cool.
• 1:09:23
  He's like, you can have it. I was like, sure.
• 1:09:25
  And I put it in a side of my book bag that I never use
• 1:09:28
  completely flashback to the present.
• 1:09:31
  I said, holy shit, there's a grenade in my book bag right
• 1:09:34
  now. And I was like, yeah, so hold
• 1:09:37
  on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Like I.
• 1:09:39
  I could explain I. Didn't know it was there.
• 1:09:42
  It's an aside. It's it's fake.
• 1:09:43
  It's fake. I get fucking bum.
• 1:09:45
  Rushed by like 12 fucking. I'm sorry.
• 1:09:48
  I'm cursing too much. 12 TSA agents, they surround me and
• 1:09:52
  they're like this. Guys got a bomb.
• 1:09:53
  He's trying to bring a bomb on an airplane.
• 1:09:55
  And they get a bomb squad guy to come and like open up the bag
• 1:10:00
  and like check out the grenade and and and I'm like, am I going
• 1:10:03
  to jail, guys? Am I going to go to jail?
• 1:10:05
  Like, no one's talking to me. They're all pissed at me.
• 1:10:07
  They think I'm like a terrorist or something like that.
• 1:10:10
  And they're like, this is like, this is like the situation of
• 1:10:13
  the day in America right now. Guy tries to bring a grenade
• 1:10:16
  onto an airplane. And and like the longest 10
• 1:10:20
  minutes of my life, I'm thinking like I'm I'm, you know, I'm
• 1:10:23
  going to, I'm going to go into the back room and they're going
• 1:10:26
  to cavity search me. And this is going to be a, this
• 1:10:29
  is going to be a bad day. And finally they said, you know,
• 1:10:32
  it's it's it's a fake grenade. It's decommissioned.
• 1:10:35
  There's no harm to it. And they let me go onto the
• 1:10:37
  plane. And no, you asked if I wanted.
• 1:10:41
  I said, I don't want to see that thing ever again.
• 1:10:43
  You throw it away. And I ran.
• 1:10:46
  Oh, man, it was crazy. It was I I I thought that was
• 1:10:50
  that was the end of me. I'm going well.
• 1:10:54
  That is crazy. So yeah.
• 1:10:56
  And then you get to you get to LA or you get to LA, you go
• 1:10:59
  through the you go through the, you know, the the, the, the, the
• 1:11:03
  drum ritual workshop. And the question that you should
• 1:11:08
  have been asking yourself is why the hell did I not check my bag
• 1:11:12
  before I got on the plane in Philadelphia?
• 1:11:18
  You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right, you
• 1:11:22
  know. What?
• 1:11:23
  You'll never do that again. No, no, no.
• 1:11:25
  Maybe only twice. But no, no, it was it was oh
• 1:11:28
  man, that was terrible. I I wanted to ask you a question
• 1:11:36
  and I think this would be a cool thing to like end the podcast on
• 1:11:40
  something that I brought up in the e-mail.
• 1:11:44
  You look a lot around the people that are in this that walk this
• 1:11:49
  path and we like that. We like our beards, we like our
• 1:11:53
  hair. A lot of people, we all kind of
• 1:11:55
  look the same. You know what I mean?
• 1:11:57
  And that aesthetic that that that old time like grow
• 1:12:02
  everything out aesthetic and you see the musicians that play this
• 1:12:08
  music and you see they all have this aesthetic.
• 1:12:12
  And I am kind of in a in a time in my life where I would love to
• 1:12:17
  be able to play my music live. I don't know how I would do it
• 1:12:21
  or even where I would do it, but it is.
• 1:12:24
  It is a goal that I have with my music.
• 1:12:26
  I would, I think it'd be fun to play live, but I'm I'm very torn
• 1:12:31
  right now when it comes to my aesthetic.
• 1:12:33
  And also I'd love to return to acting professionally as well,
• 1:12:37
  because I was going to actually. I was actually cast two years
• 1:12:42
  ago in a film that never got made, but they wanted me to play
• 1:12:47
  Odin as not as an old man, but in like the hair.
• 1:12:52
  I can never say this, right? Hair Revoir.
• 1:12:54
  Hair Revoir, Saga Herb. It's something with HR.
• 1:12:57
  Do you know what I'm trying to say?
• 1:13:00
  One of the sagas. But so I I spent like 6 months
• 1:13:05
  like changing my whole body to get like as big as I could and I
• 1:13:09
  let my my hair and my beard grow out.
• 1:13:12
  And then a month before shooting was supposed to start, they had
• 1:13:16
  to cancel because they lost all their funding.
• 1:13:18
  But I I completely changed my my look when it came to acting for
• 1:13:24
  this role. And I I wouldn't go any other
• 1:13:26
  way about it. I would still do the same, but I
• 1:13:29
  I don't look the way that I professionally in the acting
• 1:13:34
  industry present myself. But I've grown incredibly
• 1:13:37
  accustomed to my beard and my hair when it because it makes me
• 1:13:41
  feel closer to this Norse Pagan path.
• 1:13:44
  Although there's nothing that says you have to have this, you
• 1:13:48
  have to look like this and blah blah blah.
• 1:13:50
  And my question is like, do you have to look the part to be the
• 1:13:56
  part? Like is there something like I I
• 1:13:59
  think maybe a lot of people might be asking themselves that
• 1:14:02
  that are on this path as a as a Pagan or a heathen or do you
• 1:14:07
  have to have like do you would you feel less in tune to this
• 1:14:12
  path if you didn't have long hair and long beard and stuff
• 1:14:15
  like that What do you what are your thoughts on on this if this
• 1:14:18
  if this is something you even feel like talking about.
• 1:14:21
  Yeah, yeah, sure. I mean, I'm happy to, I'm, I'm
• 1:14:24
  happy to give you my my opinions and thoughts on it.
• 1:14:27
  I would love to. Yeah, sure.
• 1:14:29
  No, I think it's, I I think you're right.
• 1:14:31
  I think it gets a lot of scrutiny because I know
• 1:14:37
  recently, relatively recently like within the last 10 years
• 1:14:41
  maybe or so, if not even sooner like one of the big things with
• 1:14:47
  heathens in the military were the was the push to allow men to
• 1:14:53
  keep groomed beards because of their of religious reasons,
• 1:14:59
  right. They they were.
• 1:15:00
  And it got passed like it got allowed and you know, as, as, as
• 1:15:04
  like well, this is my, you know, religious identity.
• 1:15:06
  I identify with my religion and my beard as part of that
• 1:15:10
  expression of my identity and all that.
• 1:15:13
  But I also, you know, I look at I, I, I admire so many different
• 1:15:19
  types of people in the Heathen community, some of whom don't
• 1:15:23
  have a very prominent role on social media, but they do
• 1:15:29
  nonetheless have a important role in kind of how I've
• 1:15:34
  formulated my own worldview. And they don't look the part,
• 1:15:37
  you know what I mean? Like they don't have, you know,
• 1:15:40
  they don't have the side cut, you know, they don't have
• 1:15:43
  beards. They don't have long hair.
• 1:15:45
  They look like, you know, you know, somebody you'd go into H&R
• 1:15:49
  Block and get you to do their taxes or get them to do your
• 1:15:51
  taxes kind of person, you know. Or if they do have facial hair,
• 1:15:55
  it's very, you know, like a goatee or very closely groomed
• 1:16:01
  or not at all. Like I said.
• 1:16:02
  So there, there there's there's certainly there's there's people
• 1:16:05
  who kind of lean into the aesthetic heavily and and really
• 1:16:11
  find their place and their happiness on this path with
• 1:16:16
  adopting the aesthetic. And then there's others who have
• 1:16:19
  done wonderful things. They've they've, they've lived
• 1:16:22
  their life full of honor. They've helped other people,
• 1:16:25
  including myself, really, you know, get into the studies and
• 1:16:31
  into the work of of learning this path and in in a very
• 1:16:34
  authentic way. And again, so they don't look
• 1:16:37
  the part. So I guess, you know, do you
• 1:16:40
  have to look the part? I say no, you don't have to
• 1:16:42
  quote UN quote look the part. Because what is even looking the
• 1:16:44
  part, if you really wanted to get technical about it, you know
• 1:16:47
  the guys would be walking around with these goofy looking
• 1:16:50
  hairstyles were like half of their heads shaved and they got
• 1:16:53
  this side bun popping up over here.
• 1:16:55
  I don't know if you've ever seen some of these, but like like how
• 1:16:58
  men back in the day, if you if you've ever watched, it's kind
• 1:17:03
  of like the Norse version of Monty Python.
• 1:17:04
  It was called Norseman. Oh, I love that show.
• 1:17:08
  Yeah. You see some of the guys how
• 1:17:11
  their hairstyles were like half of the back of their heads
• 1:17:13
  shaved and then they got like the front.
• 1:17:14
  That's like knotted up on the front Pat if anybody wants to
• 1:17:18
  quote UN quote look the part of a pre Christian Germanic
• 1:17:22
  heathen. Right.
• 1:17:22
  Well then do that look like that cartoon character.
• 1:17:26
  You know what I'm saying? Like it doesn't, It doesn't,
• 1:17:28
  it's not an aesthetic that fits in today's society.
• 1:17:31
  So I think a lot of it becomes, I think a lot of it's honestly,
• 1:17:39
  you know, just vanity, like what do you like?
• 1:17:41
  What do you want to be? What do you want to be looking
• 1:17:43
  like? Right.
• 1:17:44
  You know it. And if it makes you feel like,
• 1:17:48
  you know, more connected to your spirituality, maybe there's
• 1:17:54
  maybe that's where you're at at this point of your journey.
• 1:17:56
  I don't. I'm not like, I'm not
• 1:17:59
  downplaying that in any sort of way, cuz for sure.
• 1:18:01
  I mean I've I've tried growing out my beard and I just really
• 1:18:04
  can't. Like the best I can do is, you
• 1:18:05
  know, a goatee and a mustache and I shaved my mustache cuz my
• 1:18:09
  wife doesn't like lip hair in her face.
• 1:18:13
  Yeah, you know what I mean? Well, you know, I mean, so I'm
• 1:18:16
  like, well, it's, you know, what am I gonna do, like, complain
• 1:18:18
  about? Well, it's my identity.
• 1:18:19
  Well, no, look, it's my wife, man.
• 1:18:21
  Like she don't like it. Like happy.
• 1:18:23
  Life. Happy spouse, happy house,
• 1:18:25
  right, the whole thing. But I think, I think when it
• 1:18:30
  comes to the look, you know, he, she, they got the look.
• 1:18:36
  It's very it's it's on the surface, you know, it doesn't
• 1:18:39
  really define who we are. Yeah, it's an identity.
• 1:18:43
  Sure it can. It can help with some of the
• 1:18:48
  aesthetic parts of things like you're going to look cool,
• 1:18:50
  you're going to really, you're going to really fit like a
• 1:18:52
  certain demographic, but. But it's not.
• 1:18:56
  It's not necessary. No, no, no.
• 1:18:59
  You could shave everything off of your head and face put on a
• 1:19:02
  suit and tie and be the best heathen If you're you know, or
• 1:19:06
  if you're a female and and and you, you know wear a dress and
• 1:19:09
  you don't like your long hair, you want to cut it short.
• 1:19:12
  Whatever. I mean again it's it's a look.
• 1:19:14
  Maybe it fits a certain period of time better than others, but
• 1:19:17
  at the end of the day it's what's happening inside of you
• 1:19:20
  and that that that really matters.
• 1:19:23
  It's the stuff that we can't see with our eyes that that really
• 1:19:27
  carries us through life, you know.
• 1:19:30
  So how do you want to look while you're carouseling around in
• 1:19:34
  this meat suit? Is is up to you personally, but
• 1:19:36
  it's not necessary. You don't have to, in my
• 1:19:39
  opinion, look a part to be the part.
• 1:19:42
  I I, I, I agree with you to be honest.
• 1:19:44
  And it's something that like has been kind of hindering,
• 1:19:50
  hindering me in a bit just because like I have grown.
• 1:19:54
  I mean, I love the way that I look right now, but you know.
• 1:19:57
  I mean, dude, I mean, you got, you got you grow a great beard.
• 1:20:00
  I mean, I'll just say, I mean, I I I can't grow a beard to save
• 1:20:03
  my life. I've tried.
• 1:20:04
  I've gone, you know, months without shaving.
• 1:20:06
  I've tried the whole thing. It just it doesn't grow well or
• 1:20:08
  good at all. So you do you you look, you look
• 1:20:11
  good. I mean like.
• 1:20:12
  But it doesn't. It doesn't make you a Pagan and
• 1:20:16
  it doesn't. I would think that if you have
• 1:20:18
  no hair and no beard that doesn't.
• 1:20:20
  You know you're not and and and I think it.
• 1:20:24
  Here's a call back to the Aeolia guy.
• 1:20:27
  Aeolia, he said. He's like a very clean cut guy
• 1:20:31
  and he makes Nordic folk music, you know it doesn't.
• 1:20:35
  I doubt that it deters you from his music that if he doesn't
• 1:20:38
  have Dropbox or something like that.
• 1:20:40
  So I think that's just something that I personally have been, has
• 1:20:44
  been on my mind a lot and I'm I'm, I'm curious if any of your
• 1:20:47
  listeners have also thought the same but haven't you know,
• 1:20:50
  brought it up just because they don't want to feel silly I
• 1:20:55
  guess. I don't know.
• 1:20:57
  No, I think, I mean, you know, if you feel in a certain way
• 1:20:59
  about it, you can't be the only one.
• 1:21:00
  I mean, we're not alone in that too.
• 1:21:02
  Like I said, you know, I'm sure it's, it's at one point in time
• 1:21:05
  I was definitely like, you know, oh, I've got a, you know, I've
• 1:21:10
  got to have this, I've got to have that.
• 1:21:12
  I've got to look this way. I've got to look that way.
• 1:21:14
  And re romance this stuff. Yeah, well, yeah, 'cause, I
• 1:21:18
  mean, look at what gets, look at what gets thrown in our faces
• 1:21:21
  through, you know, So, you know, pop culture and the media, all
• 1:21:25
  of the popular shows, you know, are showing these, you know,
• 1:21:29
  really, you know, Drenger looking chaps, you know, dudes
• 1:21:32
  with, you know, the shaved sides of their heads.
• 1:21:34
  They got beers, they got dreads, some of them.
• 1:21:37
  And it's like, yeah, man, that looks badass.
• 1:21:38
  I want to be that and it looks like that so.
• 1:21:42
  I think you had a an episode in this season to come like a month
• 1:21:46
  ago about like the the the impact of the media on Heathen
• 1:21:53
  culture. Yeah, well, that's, you know, if
• 1:21:55
  you like this topic, go back and listen to that episode again.
• 1:21:58
  You know, but. Find some connection there for
• 1:22:01
  sure. No, it's it's something that I
• 1:22:05
  thought was a a cool way to like to to wrap all this up like we
• 1:22:10
  we had the how to you know make these animistic beats and we're
• 1:22:14
  talking about different types of music and and playing music and
• 1:22:18
  do you have to look a certain way to follow this path or make
• 1:22:22
  this music and I don't think you do.
• 1:22:24
  No, no, not at all. And you know what else too, I
• 1:22:27
  think, man, is that if you want you want to really throw you
• 1:22:31
  really you want you really want to throw some people off is, you
• 1:22:35
  know, get this project going. And then, you know, when you
• 1:22:39
  start playing it live, it's like, who's this banker up here,
• 1:22:43
  you know, with like a comb over and no beard?
• 1:22:45
  And he's out here just like tearing shit up on the tackle,
• 1:22:47
  Harper on the drums and doing whatever he's doing.
• 1:22:50
  So I'll throw people for a loop because then they'll be like,
• 1:22:52
  but I thought he had to look like he was Eric the Red or
• 1:22:55
  something, you know? You were here, modest Yahoo.
• 1:23:00
  Yeah, I remember. Dude, what a throwback.
• 1:23:03
  What a throwback to. That he was a Jew playing reggae
• 1:23:07
  music. Yeah, that's like, wait, what?
• 1:23:10
  Like that's that's that's the exact same thing.
• 1:23:12
  You don't have to to be a Rasta looking guy to play reggae
• 1:23:15
  music. Maybe you don't have to be a
• 1:23:18
  fucking of hiking looking guy to play Nordic folk music, you
• 1:23:22
  know? And if you're going to, if
• 1:23:25
  you're a baby heathen it's OK to start off where you want to
• 1:23:29
  start off as long as you learn that it's not all about you know
• 1:23:32
  you're not going to Valhalla. People like it, you you it's
• 1:23:35
  it's it's AI mean. I don't know, maybe I'm getting
• 1:23:38
  too too out of there, but, you know, just.
• 1:23:40
  I've said it before. I mean do.
• 1:23:42
  Do your research, you know. Yeah like that was that that
• 1:23:45
  that that the thing existed at a period of time for for a
• 1:23:48
  specific reason in a specific area.
• 1:23:51
  Read the Read The Road to Hell by HRLS Davidson to understand
• 1:23:56
  the actual conceptual world views of death in the afterlife
• 1:24:00
  among the Norse and dramatic people if you really are
• 1:24:02
  interested in that sort of thing.
• 1:24:03
  And and I believe she talks a bit about the the history of the
• 1:24:07
  vow hole and and where it came into to to being throughout
• 1:24:12
  history. But yeah, it it's it's not a
• 1:24:14
  place that where you're going. Or should want.
• 1:24:17
  To or even Leah. I mean like damn, like if it if
• 1:24:20
  it if it exists in the context and in the way that it's
• 1:24:22
  described in the lore. No thanks.
• 1:24:26
  I can drink. I can drink beer and eat bacon
• 1:24:29
  right now. You know what I mean?
• 1:24:30
  I don't want to fight and die every day just for the hell of
• 1:24:33
  it, right? Give me some beer and bacon.
• 1:24:36
  Oh but Jesse, I had AI had such a great time talking to you man.
• 1:24:40
  Thank you so much for for having me on your on your show a big
• 1:24:45
  fan really enjoying this season. I was I was really nervous
• 1:24:50
  beforehand. I was like man I I don't want to
• 1:24:53
  make a fool of myself or this or that.
• 1:24:55
  I just I I hope that's good. But man it it it's it's for
• 1:24:59
  anyone thinking about coming on to your show that thinks that
• 1:25:03
  they don't know what to it's it's it's very very easy talking
• 1:25:06
  to you man. I I had a great time.
• 1:25:09
  Well, I had a great time too, Matt.
• 1:25:10
  And if if anybody's going to make a fool of themselves on on
• 1:25:13
  this show, it's going to be me. Would you?
• 1:25:17
  Would you steal my Thunder? Right.
• 1:25:19
  Yes, Sir. But yeah, so you guys have
• 1:25:23
  everything that Matt is into, all his socials are going to be
• 1:25:26
  in the, the, the show notes in the description area, right.
• 1:25:29
  So I know you'll be watching this on Patreon for everybody
• 1:25:31
  else that is too. It's in the description, but for
• 1:25:34
  everybody that's listening, check the show notes and if you
• 1:25:36
  want to see some of the stuff that you're hearing today, as I
• 1:25:39
  mentioned early on in the beginning, head on over to
• 1:25:41
  Patreon. It's a dollar to sign up for the
• 1:25:44
  for the video access and you don't even have to repeat that
• 1:25:47
  every month if you don't want to.
• 1:25:48
  If you just want to drop it one time and catch up on a bunch of
• 1:25:51
  episodes, come back a couple months later and do the same
• 1:25:53
  thing. It's up to you under no
• 1:25:56
  pressure, no obligation. And yeah, I think that that's a
• 1:26:01
  good, that's a good thing to wrap up.
• 1:26:05
  So thank you, Matt for being my guest here this week and
• 1:26:09
  rambling on with me about all the things that you've learned
• 1:26:12
  through Jacob and Nick's drumming workshops and sharing
• 1:26:17
  with us some of your musical talents and interests.
• 1:26:21
  And I wish you all the best of luck with Vinland going forward
• 1:26:24
  and however that manifests itself and what you do, looking
• 1:26:27
  forward to hearing and seeing more from you on that.
• 1:26:30
  And yeah, when we when when when it as the time comes and you
• 1:26:34
  want to come back on the show to showcase some of it.
• 1:26:36
  Hit me up. Let me know.
• 1:26:37
  Oh, I'd love that, man. I'd.
• 1:26:38
  I'd love to come back. Well, we'll definitely make it
• 1:26:42
  happen. So I do want to thank you.
• 1:26:44
  Just hang on for a minute before you like bounce off of here.
• 1:26:47
  I'll say a few words from you or with you offline, but for
• 1:26:49
  everybody else that stuck it out with us for the for this episode
• 1:26:53
  of the Random Heathen Ramblings Podcast, thank you so very much.
• 1:26:56
  And if you did like this episode, share it around, tell
• 1:26:58
  your friends, upvote it, favorite it, do whatever.
• 1:27:01
  The thing is that shows your support in that way, and thank
• 1:27:04
  you all so very much. And until we talk to each other
• 1:27:07
  again, may the gods continue to notice you, and may your
• 1:27:11
  ancestors smile upon you. See you in the next one.