Latest / The Scene Projects / Christine Passig on Midwest Music, Songwriting, and Community Engagement

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Christine Passig on Midwest Music, Songwriting, and Community Engagement · The Scene Projects

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  Welcome to the Scene Project songwriter showcase here at the Midway Saloon in Saint
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  Paul, Minnesota.
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  With me now is Christine Pasig.
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  Welcome to the show, Christine.
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  Thanks for having me.
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  Thank you.
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  To have you.
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  Thank you.
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  I haven't seen you since we were at the awards show back in April.
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  How have you been?
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  Busy.
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  Yeah.
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  Very busy.
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  Yeah.
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  Doing some solo shows.
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  I'm in a band.
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  A lot of collaborative effort.
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  Leaving Page Town was up here earlier.
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  We've been doing some some things with them and their new album and background and keys and
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  stuff.
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  And, yeah, just finished up a a Christmas show.
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  That's another collaborative effort, a bunch of guys from different bands in my area, and we we
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  put on this show.
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  We've been rehearsing since May.
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  So we we had our final our final show just this weekend, and it's so great.
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  Is it a little
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  bittersweet to finish the last one off and hope that's done?
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  Yeah.
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  But we're also talking about next year already, so we have something else to look forward to.
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  That's great.
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  Mhmm.
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  Well, and that's something that, you know, obviously, a lot smaller scene in South Dakota.
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  We're all pretty tight knit, but because it's so small that we have maybe, I don't wanna say
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  fewer opportunities, but fewer opportunities for things like that.
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  Right?
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  To get together and to do something totally different.
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  It's hard to pull yourself out of, you know, your main gig.
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  Sure.
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  Absolutely.
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  So I appreciate having a little bit bigger, you know, a little bit bigger scene up here that
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  you do a lot.
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  Obviously, I follow you on social media
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  Oh, thank you.
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  All the time, and you're always so busy.
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  And you're doing a lot of social media stuff for our Midwest Country Music Organization as
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  well now.
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  Right.
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  I wanna shout you out and give you your flowers.
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  Thank you so much.
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  It's been looking great.
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  Thanks.
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  Well, we appreciate it and and definitely deserve the applause there because it's it's a
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  collaborative effort, the org in general.
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  Right?
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  It it's not a top down organization that we're a part of.
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  It is a bottom up organization.
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  Is Press through. Is
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  Is very much so.
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  Exactly.
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  And it's so great that, you know, you have you've taken taken the lead on some of this
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  stuff and really helped out.
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  And I'm a newish member still.
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  I I won't be able to say that, I guess, here soon as I'll crest my first full official year.
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  Sure.
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  But, yeah, I I I only needed a little bit of permission.
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  And, once I had a phone call with PT, Paul Thomas, he was just like, look, bud.
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  Just go do it.
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  Yeah.
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  Absolutely.
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  I was like, okay.
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  You just told the right guy, Ed, to let me go ahead and do it.
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  And you're much of the same that we don't need, to be told what to do.
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  We can kind of assess what needs to be done.
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  And then we're just gonna go and do it.
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  Oh, absolutely.
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  And for me, the Midwest Country Music Org kind of was my blossoming point as a musician.
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  And getting to meet other musicians, especially at the award show, and making connections, and
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  becoming a cheerleader for the other artists.
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  I'm at a point in my life, I'm almost 50, and I'm not out here to be like the biggest next
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  star.
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  I love working with other musicians.
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  I love that collaborative magic that happens when you get with other musicians and you just
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  have a boatload of fun making music together.
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  And so started my own studio in the basement, and I've started recording, like, on my own
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  just so I could learn enough to help other org members.
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  And I've also I've been working with Greg Huberty, who produced the Leaving Page Towns
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  album, in some other projects that he needs keys on or vocals on.
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  And now I can do it from my basement.
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  I don't have to travel to where he is to do that, and that was a big goal of mine.
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  Right.
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  And that's the beauty of the org and, you know, and what it is, but also of the beauty of the
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  Internet.
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  I mean, hasn't it just changed all of our lives for the better?
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  I know we talk a lot of smack on the social media and things, but it's it's really this is
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  not possible.
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  Right?
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  I I mean and the scene projects and everything that I've been working on for the last six to
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  eight months isn't possible without, you know, Facebook and the Midwest Country Music
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  Organization.
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  I would not be here without it.
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  So I
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  would I would totally a 100% agree.
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  Yeah.
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  Mhmm.
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  Well, why don't you go ahead and play us one of your songs?
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  Okay.
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  Well, I would say that I am more of a cover artist, and so I am a burgeoning, fledgling
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  baby songwriter.
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  So, these are these are debuts that I've I've not really presented to anybody before, or,
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  much.
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  And so I am really comfortable behind the keyboard in a piano bar setting, taking
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  requests, playing some Adele, playing some Sheryl Crow or Fleetwood Mac or whatever the
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  crowd wants to hear.
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  And so to find my own voice in songwriting has been a really fun journey.
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  So this song is, really new, like in the last few weeks, and it is about that, mindset we had
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  towards winter and how we have, kind of a negative view of winter, especially here in the
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  Midwest, how cold it is and how depressing it is.
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  But I've been reading a book called How to Winter, and it's trying to change the mindset
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  of how we talk about winter and how we look at winter, and it caused me to reflect on my own
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  childhood and as a young mom, and my kids are now 20 and 23 almost, and just remembering how
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  they loved winter.
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  And so this is called Snowbound.
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  Snowflakes were falling for the first time that year.
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  I ran out in my mittens and hair.
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  I tilted my head back and caught the flakes on my tongue.
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  Mama from the kitchen just laughed and it was clean, new and pure, covered all the dirt in
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  the yard.
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  A few years later and friends were far to find.
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  Winter came round with a chill.
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  Daddy pulled out the sleds, grabbed onto my hand saying, we're on our way to the hell.
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  And it was clean, new and pure, covered all the dirt in the yard.
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  I've been waiting for this moment all year.
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  I didn't care about the cold.
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  I was 13 years old in snow, bell.
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  Sliding down the driveway, swearing at the snow plow driving by.
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  It's so easy to forget all the beauty that's there if we'd only look up to the sky.
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  Now I'm a mama, life sure goes fast, full of laughter and tears and that's mine.
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  But come December, their little eyes grow so wide when the first wintery flakes start to
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  fly.
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  And it's clean, new and pure, Thank you.
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  That was absolutely lovely, Christine.
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  You got a tear out of me.
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  Thank you.
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  Aw.
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  It happens a lot on this stage.
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  Let me tell you what.
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  Oh, I love that you're a new songwriter.
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  Yeah.
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  But so accomplished.
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  I I wrote when I was younger.
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  Right?
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  Like, in elementary school, middle school.
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  And then I just I I tabled it.
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  And I got involved in a lot of church music.
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  I've played on worship teams, led worship teams for, gosh, fifteen years, and I still play on a
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  worship team.
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  And so that's very time consuming.
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  And it it being a mom, being a wife, I work, part time for a nonprofit, and it's very time
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  consuming.
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  So finding the actual time, it's gotta be intentional for me to find the time to write.
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  Definitely.
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  Definitely.
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  And I think that's where, you know, Sam was just up here, Samantha Grimes.
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  And, you know, she talked about how she doesn't really play any covers, and that leaves her all
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  the time to write.
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  Right?
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  And we don't think about these things as artists.
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  You know, she's she's not thinking about the time that she's not spending learning other
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  people's songs, right, and other worship songs and all of these other things that you have to
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  do when, you know and I think especially for piano players is probably more so because
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  you're so in demand.
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  It's hard to find really good piano players.
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  So when you are, you'll never be out of work.
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  As long as you wanna play music, you will find somewhere to play.
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  No.
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  You definitely will.
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  Hard to lug it around.
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  It's not as portable, but it it adds a lot, I
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  feel.
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  And that probably has to do with, you know, that there's something to that of why there
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  aren't as many piano players these days.
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  Maybe.
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  I
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  don't That was a joy.
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  Thank you.
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  Thanks.
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  Really reminded me that, you know, winter is the time that we come back to our communities.
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  We come back to our family.
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  We come back together.
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  Right?
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  This would never happen in the summertime because we're all so busy.
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  Right?
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  We're we're all playing festival gigs, and we're playing five to six days or seven days a
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  week, some of us.
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  Right?
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  Sure.
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  That without the winter times and when life slows down a little bit and we have these
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  seasons and starting to celebrate each season for what it is.
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  Right?
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  And I think I think I need a copy of that book that you're reading.
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  Oh, it's wonderful.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  I've been doing a lot more reading lately too, and that's probably why I cry a lot more as
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  well.
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  You think you can make me cry again, Christine?
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  What's the next song that you got planned Yeah. For
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  For
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  songs are all very personal, so maybe.
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  This next song is called Wildflower, and it's actually about my daughter, who I mentioned
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  before.
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  She's almost 23.
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  She is married.
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  She's been married a year, this past August.
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  And, a couple years prior to that, she kinda picked up and moved out to Wisconsin, and was
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  kinda starting over.
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  Yes.
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  Yes.
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  And we love her.
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  We we still love her.
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  We love her her her new family.
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  She is still a Vikings fan.
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  Although she doesn't really understand football all that much, don't think, but she would say
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  she's a Vikings fan still.
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  But, yeah, we've we've just had just a joy watching her her grow as a woman, and and so
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  this song is kind of about her moving out there and starting on her own as a young woman, and
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  and and what is she gonna do out there?
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  How is she gonna meet people?
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  How is she gonna connect and find a job and kinda adult?
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  You know?
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  So this is called Wildflower.
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  For a deep love.
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  Sinking her roots down deep in a small town, she knows what she wants to be.
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  Now she's pouring out coffee, perfecting some hobbies, making jewelry out of spoons.
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  It's church on Sunday Thank you.
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  Something so powerful about a mother's love coming out in song.
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  I think that's a beautiful thing.
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  Thank you so much.
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  No.
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  It's, we all know the power of that.
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  Right?
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  We all have mothers and we know that love is fierce.
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  And I think that you were made to write these songs.
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  Right?
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  To write about that.
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  To go and experience all of all of the raising the children and bringing that, you know,
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  bringing them to fruition now to where they're going out and starting their own families and
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  building their own things.
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  And now you get to write about that experience and watching them grow.
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  Is she embarrassed by that song?
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  No.
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  No.
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  She doesn't really get embarrassed much.
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  No.
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  She's a sweetheart.
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  Yeah.
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  I think that's what I really love about country music is that it it opens up those doors to
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  really, like you were saying earlier, storytell.
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  And, country music is not what I grew up with.
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  I didn't really get into country music until I was in college, really listening to nineties
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  country, and I loved it.
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  And and so being able to write country music is is just I feel the freedom to really write
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  about what I want to write, which is very personal to me.
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  Yeah.
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  And my story, I didn't find country music until I started dating my wife, you know, six years
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  ago.
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  I grew up with, you know, classic rock, and I grew up with a lot of good music.
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  Right?
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  I was surrounded by it, and I I knew, you know, I knew a little bit of the music.
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  But once I started listening to the Alan Jacksons and, you know, guys like George
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  Strait, and you're just like, wow.
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  These stories are amazing.
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  That's the connection.
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  Right?
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  We're we're seeking self expression through our music and through our songs.
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  And in that, we find that that's the connection with other people.
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  People are seeing reflections of themselves in the songs.
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  Right?
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  Expression.
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  And that's Mhmm.
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  The beautiful, powerful thing about music and songwriting, especially to that is that you're
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  connecting heart to heart now with someone else.
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  You're not just playing a song that they love for another reason.
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  Now they're hearing that song directly from you and they're loving that song because it's you.
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  And that's the power of being a songwriter as compared to a performer.
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  Yeah.
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  Right.
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  Yep.
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  But how fortunate are those that can do both?
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  Oh, absolutely.
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  Absolutely.
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  And I think that's part of the the beauty of performing live for people is whether you play
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  covers or where you play whether you play originals, you do get to engage and and kind of
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  have a conversation with the audience, which is so much fun.
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  It's so much fun.
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  But if you can connect with your own lyrics and it's something that they can connect with out
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  there, that's magic.
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  Yeah.
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  It's a 100 all of a sudden, you've made this connection.
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  And and you may not even realize it till later how how your own music can affect people.
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  Right.
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  So And that's the beautiful thing about, you know, this show in particular is that, we can
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  give you those songs to put out into the world without you having to go into the studio and
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  put all that pressure on yourself to, oh, we gotta get it recorded, and it's gotta be
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  perfect.
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  And no.
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  Just come here and perform it and just put yourself out there, and then we'll put it out
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  there.
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  And and we'll we'll share it with the world and help you find those connections.
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  Sure.
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  But if you do need keys on a track
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  Yeah.
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  Well, believe me.
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  I'll be calling.
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  So will all the rest of us here.
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  It's pretty much 95% musicians in the room right now.
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  Mark Joseph just walked in the door too.
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  Hey, brother.
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  This is a great thing that that we've been doing here.
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  And, Christine, you do so much in the music scene around here.
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  You mentioned your nonprofit earlier.
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  Why don't you go ahead and talk a little bit about the nonprofit that you work for and what
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  that is to the community
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  as well?
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  Thank you so much.
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  So I started working for this nonprofit out in the Glencoe, Arlington area.
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  It's west of the metro quite a bit quite a bit called To Be Continued.
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  It's the number two and the letter b, continued.
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  And it is a suicide prevention nonprofit.
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  So we, go into schools and communities, and we get grants and donations, and we provide free
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  suicide prevention training.
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  We teach others how to recognize signs and symptoms of distress or mental crises, and what
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  to do about it, and what resources are available.
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  Because not everybody knows that there are a ton of resources or even what to say to someone
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  who's struggling.
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  Right.
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  I think that's so important.
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  And I didn't know exactly what the nonprofit did, but that the training and the just being
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  able to recognize, like you said, the symptoms when you realize that people are doing it.
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  And sometimes it's just it's a simple conversation that can save someone's life.
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  Mhmm.
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  Yep.
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  You know?
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  And we're trying to reduce the stigma around actually talking about it, saying the word
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  suicide or Yeah.
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  Rethinking of killing yourself.
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  Like, it's just not in our vocabulary that needs to be to kind of open up those doors.
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  Totally.
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  I mean, it's conversations, and especially because of the podcast and just, you know,
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  living my life behind a microphone essentially now all the time.
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  The conversations are what changes lives.
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  Right?
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  And you think back to your life and you're like, oh, yeah.
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  That that that talk that I had with them either, you know, opened this and furthered my
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  life or literally quite, you know, saved you and and stopped you from doing something that
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  you wanted to do Right.
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  That you really nobody else wants you to do.
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  Right?
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  So Absolutely.
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  Thank you for sharing a little bit about to be continued.
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  I I urge everyone to get on.
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  If you can afford to donate and support these organizations, please do so.
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  Please please do so.
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  Thank you.
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  Yeah.
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  Christine, I got time for you to share one more song.
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  Okay.
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  Now I'm gonna break the rules a little bit and actually do a cover.
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  I like it.
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  But it's a Christmas song, and so I figured that it's it's Christmas season, and I did just
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  put out an album, a little plug of instrumental music on Spotify.
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  And it's mostly instrumental and then one singing bonus track, and it's Oh Holy Night.
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  So I thought I'd share that with you now.
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  That's awesome.
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  Yeah.
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  There are no shameless plugs on this show.
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  This is what the show is for.
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  Feels like a shameless
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  plug.
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  No.
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  Thank you.
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  That was incredible, Christine.
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  Go ahead and shamelessly plug everything else that you do for
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  christinepassig.com, pasinpaul,assig.
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  So christinepasig.com is my website.
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  You can find all the links there, but I'm also on Facebook, Instagram, and on Spotify.
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  See pasig music at yeah.
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  On both Facebook Awesome.
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  And Instagram.
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  Christine Passek, guys.
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  Give her a big round of applause.
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  Thank you.
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  Thank you.