Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 116. Charlie Dark, Founder Run Dem Crew

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116. Charlie Dark, Founder Run Dem Crew · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If you've got to do something, step into your light
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: and give it one hundred and ten percent of your effort,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: because there's nothing like regret when you look back in
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: your life and you think, you know what, I really
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: wish I tried a bit harder.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Hey, Hurdler's Emily a Body here bringing you Episode one
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: sixteen of Hurdle, a wellness focused podcast where I sit
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: down with inspiring individuals to talk about everything from their
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: big wins to how they've gotten through some of life's
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: toughest moments. On the show, you can expect a vulnerability,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: a motivation, and candid discussions with everyone from top athletes
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: to aspiring entrepreneurs on what it really takes to follow
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: your passions. My mission is simple to inspire you to
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: be your best self, move with intention, and have some
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: fun along the way. If you've been following along this week,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: I have been reposting some of my favorite episodes of
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Hurdles past featuring black guests, hoping to amplify their voices
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: during this important time in our country and continue my
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: commitment to being a better ally. Today's episode, I am
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: bringing you my conversation with Charlie Dark from November twenty nineteen,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: and this experience is probably one of my favorites since
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: launching the show. Charlie and I sat down in a
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Lululuman pop up the week of the New York City
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Marathon for this recording and it was just really really
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: special in that the community really showed up and he
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: has a lot of.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: Really great stories to tell.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: He talked to me about how when he started running,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: he was in a bad place. Today he is a
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: DJ and a poet and at the time he was
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: teaching a poetry and creative writing class in East London
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: and had recently lost a friend of his and when
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: he started running, it started under the cover of darkness.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: He says, between around one and three am. He'd leave
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: the recording studio in the early hours of the morning
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: and run home. He told me that he just didn't
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: want anyone to see him or watch him fail. Within
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: a year's time, he started to talk about his newfound
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: love for running with his friends and every Friday they
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: link up and run a single mile at nighttime. And
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: soon after this hurdle moment which he talks to me about,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: that's when his crew, a Run dem Crew, was born.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Currently at more than five hundred strong. Dark tells me
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: that co founding the collective it gave him new purpose.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: And in today's episode, we're chatting about everything from how
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: to defeat imposter syndrome to the highs and lows of
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: conquering the marathon distance, plus Charlie gets really honest about
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: his true passions. We talk about how running culture has
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: ignited a fire within him and the world is better
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: because Charlie is in it. And I mean, months after
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: this conversation, following him on social media and seeing how
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: this revolution is impacting him, He's shared a really difficult
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: series of posts over the past few days, and he
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: said on Instagram a week ago that when someone asks
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: him how he is, the official answer is I'm as
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: good as can be expected at this time, while the
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: unofficial answer is that, like many black people right now,
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: many black men right now, he's finding himself reliving a
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: lot of pain.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: My heart goes out to him again.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: I am grateful for him, and I know that so
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: many literally across the world, we all feel the same way.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: If you have yet to sign up for the Hurdle Weekly,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: please do so. The link to do so is in
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: the show notes. The description to this episode. Next week
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Hurdle will be back to its regular Monday, Wednesday, Friday cadence.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: But please keep.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Engaging with me, telling me where you're at, where your
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: thoughts are. I am always here to listen and to help.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: However I can at Emily Abadi at Hurdle Podcast and
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: always again available over email. It's Emily at Hurdle dot us.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: And with that, let's get to hurdling. Thank you all
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: so much for coming today here. I am with Charlie Dark.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: He is the mastermind behind Run and we'll get into
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: what that is and just a little bit. It's also
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: a DJ, a poet, a Lulaming global run ambassador, a
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: community builder, a public speaker. I love listing things because
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: people do this when I sit down with them, and
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: it never is not awkward when someone describes you in
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: twelve ways before you even say.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: One single word.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: But before we really get going important. First off, happy birthday,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: thank you very much. Indeed, what do you need to celebrate?
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: A bit?
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: Running with a crew?
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Just running me the crew in London and then we
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: came home and got on a plane and then we
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: came here.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Perfect. That's pretty festive to me.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: It was good.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Also, you and I have something in common which I'm
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: going to just launch off with, is that we both
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: like to run when many other people aren't doing much
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: of anything.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: Of course, talk to me about that.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: I started running in the nighttime because it was embarrassed
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: to be seen running in a day I was working
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: as in schools, teaching pot creative writing in schools in
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: London with kids who are kind of from particularly tough backgrounds,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: and I didn't want them to see me failing, and
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: so it was so hard to get their respects in
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: the classroom. They thought, if any of these kids see
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: me sweating and walking and berating myself in the daytime,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: then basically you know, it's going to be really hard
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: to get them through the course.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: So I start running at night.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: Okay, what time and night are we talking here?
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: We're talking one to three o'clock in the morning.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: How do you stay safe between one and three am running?
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Well, generally around that time I would have been coming
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: out of a recording studio and so I would have
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: been running home in my neighborhood. And I think generally
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: when you're you know, when you've lived in a neighborhood
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: for a long time, and you know a lot of
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: the characters that you see, and maybe you know the
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: people who might be causing you harm.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: You're kind of okay, so you're saying, I just need
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: to learn all the questionable people in my neighborhood.
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: And you know, it's a really strange thing just growing
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: up in London.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: It's kind of such a multicultural melting pot of different
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: types of people. One of the biggest listeners that I
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: learned is that when you move into a new neighborhood,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: introduce yourself to as many people in that neighborhood as
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: you can, including the criminals, because they will keep you safe.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: I like it. I like it.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: There's a guy that lives downstairs, well he doesn't live downstairs,
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: but he feels like he lives downstairs, and he always
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: sits on the bench in front of the laundromat. And
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: every morning when I go outside at like five point
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: fifty to go running, he is there and I say hi,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: and he says, have a safe run.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: And then I come back and he says how was it?
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: All the time, and it's nice because it's like someone's
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: waiting for me.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so not all that long ago on your Instagram.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: You said, hold on, you mean the life I dreamt
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: about when I was a kid is actually happening right now,
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: So let's rewind it back, because it wasn't like all
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: of a sudden one day you decided to start running
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: at one point thirty in the morning, and you were
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: DJ and you're a poet and you're doing all these things.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: So I want to rind it back and bring you
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: back to your humble beginning. Talk to me about what
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: life was like growing up for you.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: I always tell people that growing up for me was
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: a bit like living I call it the Bermuda Triangle
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: because my parents are from Ghana in West Africa. I
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: grew up in a neighborhood that was predominantly West Indian
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: and I went to a very well to do poss
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: private school in London. I managed to get myself an
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: assisted place. In the early eighties, they basically decided to
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: start diversifying private school education. So what they would do
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: is essentially bust kids in from the hood. And my
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: mum basically said to me, I know, you want to
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: go to the local comprehensive where all of the bad
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: boys go, but you can't go there. So you're going
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: to go to Alain's and you're going to study, and
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: we're going to get your tutor, and you're going to
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: go there because that's basically going to just open up
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: the avenues of what you can achieve because at that time,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: kind of growing up in London, there weren't very many
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: avenues for you. The unfortunate thing about that is that
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: basically you then feel very displaced because you're you're in
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: a school, you know, as one of only four black
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: kids in my school in the whole time I was there,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: it's over a thousand children in school. Jude Law is
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: in you below me, actor, dude. The school is basically
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: filled with people who've got lots of money and privilege,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: and then there's me just feeling really out of place
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: and trying to find myself, and growing up was just
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: a struggle just trying to find, you know, just to
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: have a voice. And that's really essentially why I kind
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: of fell in love with DJing because it was the
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: first thing that I discovered in life that gave me
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: power and gave me status, you know, both in my
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: neighborhood and more importantly in my school, you know. And
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: so there's a very significant moment where I had where
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: I picked up the needle of the record that was playing,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: and five hundred people just stopped and stared at me,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: and I was like, wow, man, like, you know, no
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: one's ever listened to anything that's ever come out of
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: my mouth before, no one's ever really noticed me. But
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: this whole room, for the people who noticing me right now,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: I think I'm going to continue doing this thing.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Was it intimidating to have that kind of power, for
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: lack of a better word.
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: Not really.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: If anything, it was intimidating to just to scope with
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: the amount of pressure that was being placed upon me.
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: My mom wanted me to go to Oxford.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: You know, like many kind of young African kids growing
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: up in London at the time, you were kind of
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: being forced in a very traditional form of employment. So lawyer, doctor,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: those were the only two professions that are available to you.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: And you want to hear about you being a DJ
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: or being a creative. That just wasn't the thing that
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: you did.
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So there was just this.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Expectation like you're going to go to Oxford University, You're
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: going to go talk to the university, You're going to
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: continue the tradition of people in our family going to
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Oxford University. And I suddenly just woke up one day
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: and was like, I don't want to go.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: What happened when you told her that, Oh all.
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: Hell break loose?
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, listening to NWA in public enemy in my room
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: and it wasn't going there very well. I actually got
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: sent back to Ghana three times in the eighties. Oh
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: as a way, but obviously what happens. You know, you
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: ride back in Ghana and you've got all the freshest
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: trainers and all the freshest gear, and you all this
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: music that you know about, and you're from London and
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: everyone thinks you're a millionaire, and suddenly it was like
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: really cool. So then I got sent back to London
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: and then got sent back again, and then spent like
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: some time just going backwards and forwards, and eventually they
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: this gave up and said, I guess, if this music
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: thing is something you really want to do, just make
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: sure that you're the best at it that you can
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: possibly be.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: I think that's probably pretty applicable. I mean, even g
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: your philosophy now in that whatever you're doing in whichever
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: way you're doing it, your goal is to really give
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: it everything you have.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: I just think that if you're going to do something,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: step into your lights and give it one hundred and
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: ten percent of your effort, because there's nothing like regret
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: and you look back in your life and you think,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: you know what, I really wish I tried a bit harder.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: So you knew that you wanted to make DJing music
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: your full time chick Oxford was not happening.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: It was not happening. But I you know, I did
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: go to university, you know, just to keep my mum happy.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: But more importantly I went because at that time, you
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: got a student grant. I think they gave you three
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: thousand pounds a year to basically go to university. And
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: I spent most of that in the first week on records.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: So there's no way to control what you spent that on.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: No, they basically just gave you the money. You're supposed
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: to spend it on food and accommodation, and I just
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: I just spent.
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: It on music, okay.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: And so what happened when you needed the money for
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: all the things that you were supposed to use the
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: money for.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Well, by that time I was kind of making money
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: from the DJing perfect so basically so yeah, it was
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: all fueling itself.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: So when's the moment that you realize that you're actually
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: truly really good at this DJ thing, Because I'm sure
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: it's not when you get signed, No.
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: It's not at all.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: I think when I got to dj in the club
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: in London called the White Club that was quine of
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: quite a seminal kind of space, and once you got
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: to play there that was kind of like your status
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: in the DJ rankings kind of went up. I think
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: for me really going into black market records and not
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: having to wait to be served, like when you walk
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: into the record shop and then they're like, we've got
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: your bag here for you, Charlie, and we've selected all
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: these like tunes for you and your name was on it.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: It's really weird now when you tell people about this,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: because obviously the way people consume and buy music is
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: very different, But at that time there was kind of
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: you know, you went to the shop and you waited
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: until the super DJs had basically you know, taken what
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: they wanted and you picked up the scraps.
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: And I think also what happened.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I remember coming home one day and my mom was like,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: someone called you from Germany and they want you to
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: come to DJ and she was just like, I can't
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: believe that someone it's actually going to pay to fly
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: you to another country to play records. It was like,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: you know, really alien to her.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: Do you think that she's started to come around?
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Then she came around when she asked for microwave microwaves
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: of five hundred pounds. At that time, they were really
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: expensive and if you went to someone's house and the
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: had a microwave, you were like, Wow, you must be
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: doing really well. And she mentioned that she wanted a microwave,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: and I bought her a microwave the next day with
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: my DJ money. And after that she was like, whatever
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: this thing is you're doing, it's a missing carry on.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm in Okay, So spoiler alert, as I already said,
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: you get signed. Yeah.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Got signed to a label, independent label called mo Wax
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Records around about ninety three.
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: I think.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: And I've always been one of those people that basically
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: fakes it to you make it and basically if an
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: opportunity comes up, I grab and then learn how to
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: work it out along the way. So I met this
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: guy called macal McLaren ran about nineteen eighty nine and
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: he was the manager of a bank called the Sex Pistols,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: and he gave me some amazing advice. He said, if
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: you ever want to do anything in your life, do
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: it yourself. Do it as much as you can yourself
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: until you need help. And then when you ask someone
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: for help, make sure they're helping you to do something
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: that you can't already do by yourself. So happened to
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: be in a record shop in Labrat Grove. I meet
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: this guy called James Level. He looks me up and down.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: He's sixteen years old and he's trying to break the
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: stronghold of the UK music industry because at that time
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: it's kind of very old guard and it's kind of
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: old dude's have been in the industry for a long time.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: And he says to me, look, you look like you're
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: into hip hop? Can you make me some records? I'm
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: starting this record company and you look like you can
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: you know, you look the part.
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: Can you make records? And I just lied.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: I was just like, yeah, man, Nina, I make records
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: all the time. Yeah, like you know, I've got a
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: studio at home, Like yeah, yeah, no worries. And I
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: literally then was like, right, I need to find someone
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: to help me make this music. And I went, you know,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: and I went and did that, and then it all
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: started from there.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: It all started from there.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So you get signed, and what is the shift
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: in life at this point, like what was and then
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: what becomes with this change in your career?
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: The changes you start making money and you start getting recognized.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: And it's a very weird thing when you go from
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: I've got absolutely no money in my bank account whatsoever,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: and now I'm getting paid cash in hand and I'm
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: making so much money from the because I think, you know,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: in the early nineties that was kind of like the
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: big DJ explosion, and you know, someden you're walking into
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: the bank with fifteen pounds but the bank managers looking
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: at you like if you just robbed the bank or something.
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: No, No, it's honest money. I've just made it from djaying.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: You know, it's all very new, and it was just
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: a really amazing, you know, part of culture to be
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: evolved in. But I think the most amazing thing is
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: when you hold your record in your hand for the
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: first time, like when you physically are holding the thing
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: that you made and you play it. I remember ringing
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: my friend up and it's like and I played the
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: record and I stopped it on the record player and
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: he's like, you can hear all the scream in the background.
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: Oh my god, he made a record and it's real,
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: you know, And that was really cool.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: And then you know, the thing is the world where
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: starts and suddenly people start writing about you, and you're
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: flying around the world and you're going to different countries
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: and you're making this kind of disposable money, and you're
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: meeting lots of really interesting people around the world, and
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: you're having all these experiences with people that kind of
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: seem slightly unreal, but you don't want to admit to
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the fact that you maybe you're swimming slightly out of
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: your depth. I went on tour with like the Foo
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Fighters and the Beastie Boys and Buork and I just
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: remember sitting there in the lyft thinking, man, like, if
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the lift crashes now, like you know, there's going to
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: be this cultural musical shift right now, and but.
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: Just kind of, you know, it's weird. It's one of
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: those weird things.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: I think when you're with people who kind of you've admired,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: and then suddenly you're kind of hanging out with them.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: You just kind of just like, yeah, you know, you
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: just try and be cool, and really you're in the
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: toilet like freaking out, like, oh.
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: My god, Buork just spoke to me. Oh my god,
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: that's what's so amazing.
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: What is Buorke doing now? That good question.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Beork is probably being super creative somewhere, because she's a
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: super creative person.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: I dealt with imposter syndrome, which you're talking about a
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: lot when I first got into what I felt was
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: like the major leagues of my industry, and I was
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: the fitness editor itself and it was at the time
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: my dream opportunity and a Good Morning America had called
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: and they wanted me to come on and lead this
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: fitness segment. And I remember sitting down with a friend
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: of mine, another trainer, and I said, this is just
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: crazy that they want me to do this, and he
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: was like, are you a certified trainer? And I was
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: like yes. He's like, are you the fitness editor itself magazine.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: I was like yes. He's like, then you are the
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: only thing standing in your way right now. So whatever
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: impostor syndrome situation you're dealing with. Shout that to the side,
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: appreciate your skill set and go out there and be
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: your best self because no one is going to just
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: wait for you to show up.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: You have to show up. I thought that was really
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: suck with me Ever since.
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: I think everyone has imposted syndrome.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Every person I've ever met, regardless of what level they are.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: At some point you have the conversation about it's pretty
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: strange that we're doing this. I remember I did the
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: program for the BBC with a royal family, Prince Harry,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Prince William, Kate Midleton, and we're hanging out and you
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: know the sas my weird wonderful life. You know, the
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: essays are there, the secret services are there, and I
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: remember having this conversation with Harry and he's just like,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: it's so crazy that this is my job and he's
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: talking talking about imposter syndrome.
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: It's really really weird.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it just happens at every level, and I think
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: in some ways it's quite a nice thing, yeah, because
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: it kind of keeps you a bit grounded, because when
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: you lose that, that's when things start going a bit
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: out of control.
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: You know, the record habit gets a bit too much.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: So what happens for you now is that you do
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: start to get a little caught up and everything that's happening. Yeah, definitely,
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: I was listening. I told Charlie before we started that
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: I was doing some background research aka like listening to
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: at least two or three podcasts that he had been on,
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: and on one of them, you said that you had
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: a Mercedes g wagon. Yep, you had four hundred pairs
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: of sneakers, yep, you had forty thousand records, yep.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: You'd accumulated all of the.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Material things and you woke up one day and you
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: were like, what am I doing? So tell me about
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: that day. Tell me what it was like to wake
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: up this day and be like, bro, I.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Think there's a really strange thing where you kind of
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: buy into the thing where society determines your worth and
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: your social status by the stuff you have.
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: And you know, and.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: You publicly showing people that you've got stuff. You don't
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: need to be driving a g wagon round in London.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: The roads are not big enough. You know, as soon
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: as you move the thing, the petrol gauge just goes straightway.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: You know, you take it to Mercedes. They charge you
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: a big load of money, but there's kind of, you know,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: there was something cool about that. I just I think
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: that actually, you know, all my life, i'd been told that,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: you know, you are nothing unless you have stuff. And
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: you've gone to school with people who've got stuff, you know,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: and they've got all this stuff that you don't have,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: and so there's all this comparison thing. So you try
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: and level yourself up by competing, you know, with the trainers,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: with the you know, who's got the rarest records. I
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: don't need four hundred pairs of trainers. I'm not a
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: millipede that just don't need that amount of footwear, you know.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: So I think there was just a moment where I
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: just remember looking in the mirror and just thinking, what
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: are you doing?
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: This is not you.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: And I think lots of us when we're growing up,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: we adopt these personas and characters and personalities just to
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: kind of get us full school life, and it then
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: trickles down into university life and then into adult life,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: and then before you know, you're like, you know, thirty,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: and you're still pretending to be someone that you're not.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: So I think, yeah, that was kind of like a
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: really big moment for me, and I was just tremendously unhappy.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: And when is this.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: This is kind of around two thousand and one and
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: we got dry as well. So when you find you know,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: when you're making music, you're you're constantly thinking about the future,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: and you're constantly trying to get the big deal.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: And then finally you get the big deal, you know.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: And getting signed to Sony Records at that moment time,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: you know that was a big deal, a lot of cash,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of expectation on you, but ultimately the
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: stakes are so much higher.
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: And I remember what happened with Sharda.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Decided either someone broke Sharda's heart or she basically for
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: some reason, her album got delayed, and it just threw
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: the whole of Sony Records into panic because they're like,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: you know, Chard's like the Golden Goose Goose, and all
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: of a sudden they start getting rid of all of
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: the smaller subsidiary labels.
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: And I remember being on the beach in Saint.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Lucia and you know, my A and R man is
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: not returning my cause, and you always notice something up
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: when the people who are kind of like we'd do
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: anything for you suddenly stop with you can't get hold
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: of them, and I'm just saying to the rest of
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: the band and like we're gonna get dropped, and everyone's like, nah,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: I know, it's fine, let's go and buy another g wagon.
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: I'm like, no, no, no, let's not do that.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: No, And and it happened, and so, you know, you
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: kind of come home and you've got all the stuff,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: but you you know, you kind of like you're just
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: looking in the mirror and your eyes are a bit dead,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: and you just kind of you've just lost that zest
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: for life. You know that there's a weird thing when
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: you basically the thing that's your passion that you've always
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: wanted to do suddenly becomes the thing that feeds you.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, you start getting this
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: anxiety in your body, you know, because now it's really
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: important and you're not just dejaying in your bedroom to
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: your teddy bears, but now you're you know, your main
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: stage in the festival, and there's fifteen thousand people looking
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: at and you like, you better be good because I've
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: had a really terrible week and you're responsible for my happiness.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: For the next two hours dead stare, yeah, yeah, stare.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: And suddenly it's like, you know, you're hiding under the
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: table and your mind's gone blank, and it's kind of
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: it's all getting on top and you can't go and
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: talk to anyone because no one to talk about mental health.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: It's not cool to talk about. You know, you've got
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: to be strong, you gotta be a man. You got
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: you know, you got a soldier through it was hard.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: Well, at least in England they recognize that that's an issue.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: They do now don't recognize here yet that it's an
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: issue at least not you know, in the government.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: But at least your government is like, we got to
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: do something about this.
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: Well, they got to do something about something.
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: So you have this realization that something's messed up and
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: this is a problem, and you're dropped and you're like,
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: what's next?
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: So how do you proceed from there?
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: I start teaching, poaching, creative adriting and always. I had
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: an English teacher when I was at school and I
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: think thirteen and fourteen saw me crying in the playground.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: It's a Canadian, dude, Actually love my Canadians. And he
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: said to me I'm going to give you this blank
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: notebook and the pen, and the pen is going to
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: be a weapon, and the notebook's going to be your
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: best friend. And I know you're having a really hard
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: time at school, and I know it's hard for you.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: So what I need you to do is to start
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: expressing your feelings into this book. So I start writing
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: a lot of poetry and spoken word. And when I
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: left UNI, you know, the DJ bug had got me,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: but really I wanted to I wanted to rap, but
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: no one was trying to rap with an English accent
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: at that time.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: It's like, when you rap with an English accent, do
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: you have an English accent? Or is that only when
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: you sing that you don't have an English accent?
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: This is a real question.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Now you have a super English accent because the music's
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: all changed. But back in the you know, early nineties,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: you were trying to.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: Be as American as well.
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you're trying to pretend you're from the Bronx.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: Like definitely just wanted to make sure you're on the saage.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: So if you have anything to drop at any time
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: during this podcast, like, please feel free.
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: You never know.
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: Okay, continue, My girlfriends like me so yeah, So I
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: returned to writing poetry and performing, and then I started
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: teaching in schools and that was a real.
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: Outlet for me.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: It was kind of like, you know, I wanted to
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: kind of I realized, is you can't just tell half
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the story. A lot of times what people do is
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: like they become musicians and they're like just.
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: About the music man.
• 26:10
  Speaker 6: You know, it's like I don't care about the press
• 26:12
  Speaker 6: or anything like, I just want to make music. And
• 26:14
  Speaker 6: suddenly you're giving all this responsibility to this stuff that
• 26:17
  Speaker 6: you've created to other people who don't really understand what
• 26:20
  Speaker 6: you do or know your life. So this time around,
• 26:22
  Speaker 6: I thought, I've got a second bite of the cherry,
• 26:24
  Speaker 6: and I want to make sure that I'm in control.
• 26:27
  Speaker 6: So I start writing the poetry and creative writing, and
• 26:30
  Speaker 6: you know, I'm doing really well in schools and you know,
• 26:32
  Speaker 6: start performing and then that school going really superwoll and
• 26:36
  Speaker 6: that kind of just helped me get my life back together.
• 26:40
  Speaker 6: The running thing came in, and I don't know if
• 26:42
  Speaker 6: I'm preempting the question before you ask it.
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: No, you're leading me into where I'm going, so please continue.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: But essentially what happens is I get known as a
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: performance poet. And then I get asked to write a
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: one man show about my DJ career and the show
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: is called Have Box Wall Travel and I'm playing like,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: you know, my mom and playing like thirty six different
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: characters in it. But I'm really unfit because I've been
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: in the music industry for all this time and you know,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: we're just fitness is not a thing that was cool
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: at the time. And my director, and this guy called
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Benji Read Amazing Dude, says to me, you know, you
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: can't take this show on the UK tour with the
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: level of fitness that you have. In fact, what he
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: said to me was, you're looking a bit portly, Charlie.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: And I was just like wow, man, Like you're like
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: the first person that's really ever.
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: Called me out.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Because when you're in the music industry, most people are
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: just kind of trying to massage your ego for as
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: much as possible. So when you finally have someone who's
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: known you quite a long time and knows you pre
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: you know, when you were to DJing in your bedroom
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: to your teddy bears, and suddenly he's like, actually, Charlie,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: you need to fix up. You're not giving one hundred
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: ten percent. You're not stepping into your light and I
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: can't work with you unless you meet me. You know,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: I'm giving my one hundred and ten percent and you're
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: giving me fifty. So you need to step up. And
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: that's why I started running, you know, That's how the
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: running came in.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: So where is the Christmas Day hurdle moment that we're
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: going to get to?
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: The Christmas Day moment is two thousand and six.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: Okay, so we're in two thousand and six and it's
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: Christmas Day, yes, and you look in the mirror again
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: and you say to yourself.
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: Today's day. I'm going out. I'm going out, going out,
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: It's Christmas daily.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Thompson he was a really famous British athlete, and he
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: basically said that he always trained on Christmas Day because
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: if you could train on Christmas Day, then you can
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: train on any day. And I you know, till this day,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: there's still this room and like, did he really train
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: on Christmas Day or was he just trying to wind
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: his rivals up? But I think there was something about
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Today's day, Christmas Day. And I went out and it
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: was a complete and utter failure, but there was just
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: something about it, like seeing the look some people. They're like,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: you're running on Christmas Day? Like and again, it was
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: a bit like that DJ moment I picked on the needle.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: But suddenly I felt powerful again, you know, because I
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: was doing something that other people weren't prepared to do.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: Talk to me about how that first run felt, because
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: you declared it a failure.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: But what made it a failure?
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: Because I think in the long term it was probably
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: anything but that.
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: I think when you.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: Had been away from fitness for a while, you often
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: make the mistake to try and recapture the fitness that
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: you had when you previously were fit. I'm trying to
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: using lots of things. So I ran at school, I
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: ran for the school, I ran for the borough I held,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: you know, as part of the four hundred meter relay team.
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: We had the record.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: It's like, so I went out on that Christmas Day
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: and for I'm just gonna come out of my house.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go to the park because if I
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: tell people that I ran around the park, they're going
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: to be impressed because that kind of sounds like a
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: distance they know. And I'm going to run around it
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: as fast as I can and I'm obviously going to
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: be as fast as I was when I was sixteen,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: and let's go get it up.
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: And it was pain fully, humbly embarrassing.
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: How long is that? Like park situation?
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: Oh? The park is a big park.
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: Oh okay.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: And the unfortunate thing is if you are running in
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Christmas day, everyone thinks you know what you're doing. So
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: then they watching you like, oh my god, you're going out.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: He's going he's oh, he's slowing down. Oh he stopped.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Oh he's being sick. Oh hold a minute. And that was,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: you know, that was an effort. And I remember coming
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: back into my house and just thinking, wow, man, you know,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: like there's got to be another way. And then so
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: that's kind of how the nighttime came about. Was like, Okay,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: I can't run in the daytime because I'm not very good,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: and I can't let any of the kids in my
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: neighborhood see me failing at something.
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: They need to think that I'm.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: Like here, So you start running and you're doing it
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: for a little while before you let on to anyone
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: else that you're running.
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: One of my friends was just like, what are you doing?
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: He was convinced I was on some crazy drugs. He
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: was just like, okay, what drugs are you on?
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: Help me up?
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Because because my whole demeanor change, my body's changed. I lost,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Like I think I was like free stone heavy than
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: I am. Now I lost.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: Hit me with the translation here, Okay.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: So free stone is a stone is fourteen pounds?
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: Oh you lost a lot a week?
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah I was. I was.
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: I was a hefty guy.
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: We have this thing come into that.
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: Do you wait for that phrases?
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't have stone equivalents, but I lost seventy
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: pounds in college.
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, well there you go.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: Okay, so running, yeah it is good for the bard.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah okay, so lose the stone.
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: I lose the stones.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: My face starts, my eyes get sparkly again, and I
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: just suddenly developed this zest for life. And then, more importantly,
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: I fall back in love with making music again because
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: I remember running. You know, I'm living in East London,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: and I start thinking to myself, I'm making all this
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: music for the dance floor, But what would happen if
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: I made music for my run, Like I started making
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: my own bespoke music to run to.
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: That'd be pretty cool, you know, And.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: So I started doing that, I started soundtracking and kind
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: of getting into recordings, and like you know, I just
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: fell back in love with making music again. It was
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: one of the best things that I ever did, and
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: it taught me how to listen, and in fact, it
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: reconnected me with my senses, you know, because I think
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: what happened is I kind of my foot was just
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: off the accelerator and that was back on again, and
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: I was doing something that no one else was doing
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: and that was really exciting. And that kind of reminded
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: me again about when I first started making music, because
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: when I first started making music, if I first started djaying,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: I was the only DJ in my road. Now, when
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: I go to my mum's house and in sometime every
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: house you walk past, when the windows open, you can
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: hear someone making the track stopping, going back to the
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: beginning and starting again.
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: You're not cool because you DJ.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: You're not cool because you're too music or collect records
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: or trainers or any of that stuff anymore. So it
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: was like this little thing that I had that was mine.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: And then my friends started finding out. And then one
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: of my friends died in his sleep, and that was
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: the catalyst for me. I was like, right, all of
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: these people that I've grown up with, you know, we've
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: all got into the music industry together at the same
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: around the same time.
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: But now various different people are.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Getting ill, you know, and I like them and I
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: like the things that they create, So what can I
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: do to keep them around for longer? And then Facebook
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: basically became a thing that people started using. I've been
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: on this DJ tour and I went to Philadelphia. I
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: met this guy called King brit and he was telling
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: me about this cite called friend Stuff. He was like,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: it's really amazing. It's this thing and you can keep
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: in touch with your friends when you're flying around the world.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: And I was like, why wouldn't you just call them
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: up on the telephone. He was just like, no, no, no,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: that's not what you do. You just sit your keyboard
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: with your laptop and then you send an email and
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: it's like this social media thing and you do that.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: And I was like, Okay, that's really cool and that's
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: pre my space, right yeah. Yeah, and the friends that
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: goes into Facebook. And then what happens is everyone, you know,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: we're now making money and were flying around the world
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: and laptops get really powerful. When technology gets powerful, something's
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: got to give. And what gave in the music industry
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: is now you don't have to need these big studios
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: because you can make records in your bedroom. In fact,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: people are now making records on PlayStations, you know, And
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: so this whole really tight music community that was based
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: around studios is now kind of dissipating. Like you know,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: like that scene in Star Wars when the Asteroids kind
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: of like, you know, they're hiding a millennium fork.
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: I'm getting geeky.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: Now, but if you know Star Wars, you know there's
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: that bit where they kind of chuck the rubbish out
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: of the Death Star and then the millennium fork and
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: kind of drifts away, and that what was happening. And
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: so I was just like, right, I don't get to
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: see my friends anymore. I get to see their names
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: in dressing rooms around the world, but I actually want
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: to see them physically. So that happened, and then I started.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: One day I was I was running late at night,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: and it was hard, you know, because it's hard when
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: you're running by yourself and you can't really tell anyone,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: so you've got no one to train with, so really
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: having to motivate yourself. So I made up all these
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: imaginary characters in my head and that that was the
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: genesis of Rundom Crew.
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: The imaginary character.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Imaginary characters, made up all these nicknames for all these
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: various different people who would come literally like they would
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: come running with me.
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: So when does the real crew start?
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: The real crew comes with My friend Morgan, producer, says
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: to me, dude, whatever you're doing, I want to do
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: it with you. And I was like, right, wicked great.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: So Friday night we're going to go for run and
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: he's like, how far we're going to go. I'm like,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: we're going to run a mile? And we're like and
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: I'm like, we're gonna put it on Facebook. And then
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: so we started running together and then we thought to ourselves, well,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: we need to get a photographer in because no one's
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: going to believe that we're doing this, so we've got
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: to start taking pictures. And then we didn't know about
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: stretching or any of that stuff. So we got one
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: of my dancer friends who kind of he was like
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: the only person I knew who knew about a body,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: you know, because happened to that point, I'm just like,
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: I'm treating my body a space suit that's been loaned
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: to me. I don't really know what it does or
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: it's full potential, so I'm only just finding out now,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: you know. So and then I'm and my good friend
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: Andrew missing him. We actually came to New York to
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: do some work with the studios in Harlem, and we
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: had this meeting and then he's I'm like, what are
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: you doing now. I'm like, let's go to the record
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: shop and he's like, oh no, I've got to go
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: and do a twenty mile training run. I'm like, what
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: do you mean. He's like, oh, yeah, yeah, I'm training
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: for the New York Marathon. So I got go and
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: run twenty miles. And at that point, I was like,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: twenty miles to seem like so far to me was
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: just like unfathomable. And then he became the you know,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: one of the final people. And every Friday night for
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: about six months, we would go out and we'd run
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: a mile, and then the mile became a mile and
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: a half, and then we'd go and eat food afterwards.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: And it was just a small thing that we were doing,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: and it was tundling along and then a big thing happened,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: and then.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: A big thing happened. This is another thing we haven't
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: This is blowing my mind. It's really starting to get crazy.
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: When I started running every day around one mile.
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, just one Yeah, that's it.
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: That's alltics.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: Okay, So you have a crew. I've got a little crew,
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: little crew, yep, and you're running.
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: I've got a little crew. I'm on it. We're running around.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: And then this group of kids that are taught in
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: East London, they won the London School's Poetry Slam competition
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: and they got to go on the school exchange to Chicago.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: And these kids like their lives were transformed. They'd literally
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: gone from the lowest of self esteems, very inarticulate, not
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: being able to look you in the eye, you know,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: getting into all types of trouble.
• 37:42
  Speaker 4: They all become poets. We go and do this amazing competition.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: It was a bit like a movie in fact, it's
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: kind of we go to Chicago and we have this
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: amazing time, and then they come back and then the
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: money for the project drives up, and then gradually this
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: type group of kids start going back into their old
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: war and then some of them get into some real
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: serious trouble and I just think to myself, this running
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: thing that I'm doing maybe the thing that can help
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: these kids. We had a thing in London called postcode
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: Wars where you had certain kids who you know, they
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: maybe lived in Peckham and they could never go to
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: Campbell even though they're literally five streets away. So my
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: idea is like, right, how can I safely get these
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: kids from this area to this area? In fact, how
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: can I get kids who basically have never been outside
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: of their neighborhood to actually start exploring their city? And
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: I thought to myself, well, you see twenty kids coming
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: to you in hoodies, you're going to cross the road.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: You might be scared. They come past you and running kit,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: you're probably gonna start applauding. And so I just put
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: them in running kit and was just like, right, I
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: got this running thing that I'm doing, come on down.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: And then so they joined us. What I realized is
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: one of the biggest problems that young people haven't at
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: the moment is there's nothing that they can do that's intergenerational.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: So it's very hard for young person to learn wisdom
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: from someone who's older than them. Because there's no spaces
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: where they get to meet, you know, especially now that
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: you know a lot of the nightclubs have closed down,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: and so you don't have these public spaces where you know,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: different types of people can come together. So it started
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: with trying to introduce kids to people who are older
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: themselves who could maybe mentor them and help them and
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: just give them a little perspective on life. And then
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: it suddenly was like, there are all these people I
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: know who are moving into areas that are going through gentrification,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: who are feeling slightly guilty because they've brought the gentrification
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: and they want to connect with the members of the
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: community and they don't know how to. So suddenly this
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: Rundom Crew thing started taking on all these really different angles.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: And then the Olympics kind of loomed up on the horizon,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: and then that was the kind of that was the
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: real final part. Why when they announced the Olympics are
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: coming to London, suddenly all you're thinking is that's a
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: large amount of money that's about to be spent, and
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: that money's got to come from somewhere, and they're gonna
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: take it from somewhere. And I was living in the
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: area where the Olympics were. It was like a spaceship
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: had just been landed, Like in four years time, you're
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: gonna have the Olympics. And if you lived in East
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: London at that time, you were like, what they're gonna
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: put an Olympic stadium there? No, they're not, Like you
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: just couldn't You just couldn't fathom because it was like
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: the ars end of London, Like no one wanted to
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: live in yeast, you know, and straight it was a
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: dumping ground. And suddenly you're seeing these, you know, plans
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: are like we're gonna make this amazing Olympic park and
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: an aquatic center and there's gonna be a running track
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: and this, and then the whole community is gonna come
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: out and use it. And I was just like, you
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: don't see people moving in London.
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: It's not la.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: I mean you go on DJ trips and people like
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: would be like going to the gym, and you'd be like,
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: what's wrong with you? Like why are you going to
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: the gym? Like you know, you're not on stage. You
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: know you're not on MC. You're not trying to grow
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: like esthetic stage.
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: Muscles, So we don't want to look good on stage.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Well, DJs do want to look aod and say, but
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: most DJ's at that time we're a bit nerdy, you know,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: so they're not boxing off the top and like pyrotechnics flight.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: It wasn't that time, you know, so you were just
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: a bit like what you're doing in the gym?
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: Why?
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: And so my thing was like, I don't want to
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: live in an area where they're going to go and
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: spend all of this money and then it's going to
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: become a ghost town afterwards and we've got all these
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: empty facilities.
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: That no one's using.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: So I was just like, right, I'm going to build
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: a fitness community in East London so that at least
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: when the Olympics go, there's going to be a group
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: of people who will basically be using the facilities and
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: hopefully that will spark a bit of a catalyst for
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: other people to, you know, to also use these facilities.
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: Did it happen how you envisioned it to happen.
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: Definitely not.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: No, no, definitely not. It grew much much bigger than
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: I thought it was going to go. Because we're doing
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: our thing in London, and then we hear about this
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: group in New York called the Bridge Runners, and I
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: was like, okay, And what was really interesting about it
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: is the guy who runs the Bridge Runners. Mike says
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: when the founders of Bridge Runners, I knew for music days,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: you know, and I knew him he used to curate
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: a hip hop museum, and so I was just thinking,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: it can't be the same guy, like who used to
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: basically be the hip hop museum guy. And then I
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: was reading he sent me a list of ten of
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: their fastest runners from Bridge Runners and there was a
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: name in there and it said NX Robinson and I
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: was like, what the dude who was the editor from
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: Fader magazine. I've never seen him run a mile in
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: my life. And so suddenly I'm suddenly hearing like, there
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: are these other people that I know for my former
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: life who were also you know, getting into fitness and moving,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: and that was really exciting. And then we hear about
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: these guys in Paris Paris Run Club, and then the
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: Amsterdam guys from PASA, and suddenly I realize it's like
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: this little thing that you started, there's other people doing
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: it all around the world. We need to connect with
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: them and find out how to do because I hadn't
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: you know, when you go from running by yourself to
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: running with five of your friends, there's still a very
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: big leap who and suddenly you look behind you and
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: there's one hundred people and you don't know what you're doing,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: and they're all looking at you like you think you
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: like you know that you know what you're doing and
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: you're making it up as you go along. The first
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: guy we met in run Them who had run a
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: math and I think you ran it in five and
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: a half hours.
• 43:34
  Speaker 4: We thought he was a god.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: We were like, man, dude, like you can do whatever
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: you want, Like, man, you ran twenty six miles.
• 43:40
  Speaker 4: Wow, you running It was like unbelievable.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: But there was this kind of innocence to it which
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: just reminded me of being a teenager and discovering music.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: And it was really really exciting, And it was really
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: exciting to be around new people who weren't looking at
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: me as like, oh, you're Charlie's like the DJ.
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: They were just like, are your Charlie dark?
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: You once said in an interview, you said, the road
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: does not care if you're a CEO or unemployed, rich
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: or poor. If you train for the road, it will
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: reward you in ways you could never imagine. But if
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: you underestimate its power, it will break you in ways
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: you never thought possible. You've run seven plus marathon Copenhagen, Paris, Chicago.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, run Chicago, run New York, Butlin, London a few times.
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: Did any of those truly break you?
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: Paris Marathon was the first one I did that broke me.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: I mean in ways that I ran behind this woman
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: for sixteen miles. I don't know if like, basically, sometimes
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: when you run long distances, you can find that you
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: want to go to the toilet, and if you're going
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: for time, you might not want to stop to run
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: off to the toilet, so you might just do it
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: as you're running along. Oh and so I was running
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: behind her. You can edit this bit out for about
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: sixteen miles and then basically she decided to go to
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: the toilet in front of me and kept her running.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: That was quite interesting. You're looking at me in disbelief
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: it does happen. Yeah, So that was like that was
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: like I was like, wow, man, you guys are really
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: so obsessed by the time that you would do that. Secondly,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: got cramps. I just underestimated the distance. I just turned
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: up and thought, well, you know, I'll be fine. It
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: was just really it was weird. It was just kind
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: of one of those things where I was winging it
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: and that broke me hood to coast. That definitely did
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: some things to my body that are still, you know,
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: being repaired right now. I think you learn lessons every
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: time that you run, but I think when you go
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: and run a marathon you definitely learn some lessons because
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: I think the problem is like a bit like fighting.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: Most people learn how to fight from watching TV, so
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: they think that actually, when they punt someone, there's going
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: to be that batman sound like wow, and then the
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: person's going to fall down to the floor. So if
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: you watch marathons on the TV, really all you really
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: see are kind of, you know, the elite athletes.
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: That's all the story is all about.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: So you kind of just think that basically it's this
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: constant like once you start, it's just this constant journey
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: all the way. And then you run a marathon and
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: you get to the first water station and it's like chaos.
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: People elbowing you, like there's all this weird stuff that
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: you've never even thought would happen. People start collapsing like
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: they get all this weird things that's happened to you,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: and I just underestimated it and I had to go
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: almost had to go back. And really it was a
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: really humbling experience my first couple of marathons.
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: Do you remember the finish line moment from the first one, Yeah.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: Definitely, The tears were so real. And also at the
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: time I was you know when I first oh wow,
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: I mean must have been around two two thousand and seven.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: I think I did the first one.
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: Oh wow, pretty quick.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: And journey, Yeah, we wanted to because also what's happening
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: is people are like, why are you running. What happens
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: in your friendship circle when you start getting fit is
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: everyone in your circle starts to have things to start
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: look at themselves. So there are the people who are
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: very supportive of your journey, but then there are the
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: people who want you to fail, because ultimately, if you
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: get fit, then they have to get fit. You know,
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: suddenly you don't want to be in the club you
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: want to be You're like, I need the early set
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: because I got it to run, you know, fifteen miles
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: in the morning. Promoters looking at you like you're crazy,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: And so my whole friendship circle is starting to change.
• 47:34
  Speaker 4: And so I was like, right, I'm.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: Gona run a marathon because if I run a marathon,
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: and that proves I'm really a runner. And I'm going
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: gonna pluck this number from finn Air that's going to
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: sound good to people who don't run, and that number
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: is traditionally sub four hours, the.
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: Miscal waves the hand in the air, sub four hours.
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna run sub four. Yeah, and I didn't run
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: some four.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: I think I ran four forty seven or something like that,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: you know, and you know, that was quite humbling to
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: come back and people were like, so you ran sub
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: four And I remember saying, no, I ran four hours
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: forty seven and.
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: They were like, what do you do? Do you walk around?
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: And I was like, I just one one of the
• 48:17
  Speaker 4: hardest things that I've ever done in my life.
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: No shade, no shade, exactly.
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: And then we went through this phase with just you know,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: you don't get the time you want, so you just
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: start signing up to anything. You just any race, you know,
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: and it's just so you can look like mister T
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: and have loads of medals around and kind of, yeah,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: I made every marathon mistake that you possibly could make.
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: Obviously there are some potential soon to be New York
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: City and marathons in the room.
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: By the time of episode airs, they will have done it. Yes,
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: So congrats.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: That was a really kind of like BBC polite, we're
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: having to clap because we have to clap, and not
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: a real kind of like make noise for the marathon
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: people there.
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: Thank you well. The world.
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: We needed that, we needed that.
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: Okay, so some marathoners in the room you just mentioned
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: marathon mistakes. Yes, number one mistake you have made running
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: a marathon.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: Okay, So you arrive and there's water everywhere, and so
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: because there's water everywhere and it's free, you just start
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: drinking as much water as you can because it's the
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: thing to do, nervous energy. And then, of course what happens.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: You need to go to the toilet, but the toilet
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: queue is three miles long.
• 49:36
  Speaker 4: That's one of the big mistakes.
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: Second one, don't go to your mum's house to go
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: and eat some crazy food that you've never had before
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: two days before your marathon. Because that also, don't buy
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: don't wear new shoes, don't go and buy new socks.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: I've done all of the I'm gonna look fresh to
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: death when I line up on the thing. I've got
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: brand new trainer's, brand new socks, brand new kit. Oh
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: my god, why my nipples bleeding? I don't understand what's
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: going on. And the most important thing for you know,
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: for me is when I first started running marathons in particular,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: there weren't loads of people of color running, and so
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: people would be looking at you like, well, he's not Kenyan,
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: you know. And that was the thing, like people be like,
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: you're not Kenyan, why are you running?
• 50:22
  Speaker 4: You know?
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: And and it was a real thing. And I really
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: felt like I was being looked at. And also I didn't,
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: you know, I ran my first marathon in like basketball shorts.
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: I wor Catton likings from Target for my first marathon.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: I turned up in my first you know race, I
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: added like a red and five turbo. Some of another
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: crazy carboys been into my cars, the windows down, the
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: blasting the music out.
• 50:49
  Speaker 4: I get out kind of coolly walk.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: Over to the start line and they're just looking at me,
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: like dudes, like the football pitch is over here, like
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: you come to the wrong sport. And it kind of
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: spurred me on in a way, you know, because a
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: lot of times as well, it's like when you run
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: these marathons, particularly you run London, you're running through the hood,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: you know, and the hood guys are looking at you, like,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: and they're just waiting, you know, after all the hot
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: girls have gone past. Then they start getting a bit
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: bored and then they're like looking at you like, and
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: they're really looking at you, like what you're doing. And
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: my thing is, you can't be what you can't see,
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: you know. And so that's the reason why you know,
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: I encourage the most unlikely people to get out there
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: and get running, whether you're running a mile, running five minutes,
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: fifty month, whatever, because you never know who you're inspiring.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: And that's one thing I've learned from run them is
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: like the messages that we get daily from people who
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: are just like thank you physic existing. You know, my
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: running club isn't really you know, I don't really feel
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: like I fit in there. But what you do I
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: can really resonate with. And because you run a marathon
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: or you started running. I started running because I started running,
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: My husband started running, and now the kids are running,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: and now you know, the whole family is running and
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: the next door neighbors, and I just feel one of
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: my big missions is to try and place leaders back
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: in communities, you know, people who can bring change, who
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: are inspirational and inspiring. And this is my thing of
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: running is like when i'm you know, I'm not running
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: for times, I'm running to inspire people to get off
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: the sofa and get moving because I just I know that,
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: you know, there's something that running gives you. This sense
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: of confidence, this sense of power, this sense of strength,
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: this sense of self belief, this sense of structure that
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: it's very hard to find anywhere else. And there's something
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: so empowering about running a marathon, and you know, going
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: for that journey because it is an up and down
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: journey and there are parts where you loving it and
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: bits where you like, I just want to stop right now.
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: But there's something that you get when you kind of
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: like run a marathon, especially those big city marathons, and
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: people that you can't like, I can't find anything else
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: that you can replicate it. It's the equivalent for me
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: of playing the record and the crowd goes wild, but
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: you know, in two records time, you're about to play
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: the real banger. That's about to kind of send it
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: into overdrive. That's what marathon running is for me.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: And that's why you don't want people to talk about
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: run demn crew like it's just a run club.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's like the day that basically people talk
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: about is a run club is the day I close
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: it down. I'm not interested in running and running club
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: because I'm not interested in your time. I'm not interested
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: in the distance. I'm interested in what have you learned,
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: What has the run taught you? What have you learned
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: about yourself? Who have you shared that information with? Who
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: have you inspired?
• 53:55
  Speaker 4: You know?
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: And because I just feel like, you know, we're in
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: this thing where basically it's all about time and distance,
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: and you're a good runner because you run it in
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: a certain time. Some of the quickest runners I know
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: in my crew cannot lift their own shopping up, you know.
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: And some of the people who deem themselves to be
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: slow have some of the strongest, most resilient personalities I've
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: ever met. Because Mofower doesn't want to go and run
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: the marathon in seven hours, he doesn't want to be
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: on the road for seven hours. His body can't take it.
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: He'll probably breaking half he can't do it. So when
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: you meet those people who they're running and they know
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: that everyone's looking at them, and everyone's like, oh, look
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: how slow you are.
• 54:36
  Speaker 4: Like we have the thing in.
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: London Marathon this year where kind of like the eight
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: hour guys. You know, you know, they're taking the barriers
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: away and there you know, the trucks are there and
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: the guys are trying to clean up the street and
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: they're kind of telling them to get off the road.
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: You've got to have some real conviction to be on
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: the road six seven, eight hours, still going, knowing that
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: you don't look like a runner or what the world
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: thinks to be because those type of people they're never
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: in the magazines, they're not in the ads. It's like
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: they don't exist. But they're the most important people that
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: there is.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: And that's why it's special that you guys pop up
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: at twenty one in the marathon.
• 55:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah, because that's where the wheels fell off for me.
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: I've seen it, Yeah, I've seen it.
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: I went to London this year and I watched and
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: I saw you guys, and it was something what we try.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: Our thing is if you can get people to come
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: down and see a marathon unfold in the flesh. They're
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: more likely to sign up to do it next year
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: because what you realize the TV just shows you the
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: highlight reel. The TV marathon coverage is a bit like Instagram.
• 55:38
  Speaker 3: It's totally like Instagram.
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: You know, it's just the highlight reel. But actually when
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: you see, like, you know, people who it should be
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: easy for crumpling in tears, and then you see all
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: these you know, you see the person with the fridge
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: on their back come past, and the guy in the
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: rhino costume, and it's it's just an amazing And again,
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: as I always saying, I've said this in so many interviews,
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: but it's the only time that strangers will come out
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: of their house and will you to succeed. No one
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: who's watching you, you know. And then this is for
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: anyone who's running on Sunday. There's no one who's watching
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: you who wants you to fail. Everybody wants you to succeed.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: So if it gets hard, just collapse to the floor
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: and someone will probably come and pick you up and
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: carry you to the end.
• 56:19
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: And for the young people I work with, it it's
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: really important for them to see that, you know, and
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: I love it when you know, the sixteen seventeen, eighteen
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: year olds come out and you know, they go and
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: run a marathon and they suddenly get into it, and
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: then they become good at it and it becomes a
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: thing that they do, you know. And my thing is,
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to change the perception because i just
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: think that if more people realized that there is no
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: one cookie cutter type runner, and people realize how beneficial
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: it could be for their mental health, for their physical health,
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: their spiritual health, for their community health, you know, their
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: relationship health, then more people would do it.
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: You're out there and inspiring a lot of people, and
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: you know, they go to your Instagram feed or wherever
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: they might come across you, and they see a man
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: who is humble and strong willed and excited to hopefully
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: help others and also aesthetically a runner.
• 57:19
  Speaker 3: When you.
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: Stand in front of a mirror and you look at
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: the mirror, what is it that you see looking.
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: Back at you.
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: I see sun shine smiling back at me, you know,
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: And it hasn't always been that way, but I'm really
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: happy with the person that I've seen in the mirror
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: now because he's chilled out and he's being himself. And
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm not one of these people who like
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: wakes up in the morning and be like, oh, I'm
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: super inspirational and I'm out to inspire people. I do
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: call myself Mister Encouragement at times because I like encouraging people.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: But I just realized that, you know, there are certain
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: people that I've met in my life who if I
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: hadn't met them, my life would be very different. So
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: my English teacher who was like, I know, I see you, Charlie,
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: I see you. There's something very powerful when someone tells
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: you that they see you and they accept you who
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: you are and they're going to help you. So that
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: given me the power, you know, the pen and the book,
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: the weapon, and the best friend.
• 58:17
  Speaker 4: That was really important for me.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: People who helped me, you know, you know, who've helped
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: me buy food when I didn't have money for food,
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: or given me records to DJ with when I didn't
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: have records DJ with, or given me opportunities in life.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: And I just want to pay it back to people
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: because I don't buy into the myth that people who
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: kind of which we have now where it's like I
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: made it all by myself Nah, there was a big
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: team of people, So I'm just trying to pay it
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: back to people. And you know, I think lots of
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: people think that you're weak if you help other people
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: or put other people before yourself, But I actually really
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: do feel like it's a superpower. I think there's something
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: really super about pressing the button for the lift, waiting
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: for the doors to open, and allowing everyone else to
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: get back in front of you, and then when you
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: get there, send the lift back down to the bottom
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: so that more people can get in the lift to
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: come and join you. Because the one thing I do
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: know about kind of you know, my time in the
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: music industry, it's not cool to be in the penthouse
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: or the VIP party by yourself with none of your friends.
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: It's a bit boring, you know, and it's a bit lonely.
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: There's something really weird about kind of like achieving these
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: really amazing things and then sitting in the hotel room
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: by yourself all your friends are asleep. So I actually
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: like to bring as many of my people with me,
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: and different types of people as well.
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: And that's why now the crew is over five hundred strong, right.
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: Deep, right now, beautiful, you know, and yeah, and we
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: just moved. We were based in East London for thirteen
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: years and we've just moved to South London to Brixton.
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: And what we've realized is, you know the power of
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: social impact and how we can impact and help other people,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: you know. And so we've got this scheme at the
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: moment where basically you can come to run them, or
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: you can pay for someone else to also come to
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: run them. You know, a younger person in the community,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: and you know they've got a public library and just this.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: There's so much more that we can be doing, and
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: it's running around the streets.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: I'm going to close this out here.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: You have an opportunity right now to offer the charlie
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: uh who is hanging out on Christmas Day deciding he's
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: going to go for that run, or maybe even the
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: charlie who looks in the mirror and just sees such
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: a dull you know, Geze looking back at him. You
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 2: have the opportunity right now to offer him one piece
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: of advice looking back on that hurdle moment right now, Wow,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: what do you tell him?
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: You're good man? That's a good question. What do I
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: tell them? Wow, don't fake it? I had a friend death,
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: good friend of mine from New York. He actually gave
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: me the name Charlie Dark, and he always used to say,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: don't fake it. Let's be true to yourself, you know,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: don't apologize for who you are. Just be you find
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: your tribe.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for hanging out with me tonight. Let's
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: hear it for Charlie