Latest / Caught on the Mike... / Stella Soleil

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Stella Soleil · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: Disclaimer, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_03: Listener discretion is advised.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_03: One of her early days in the band Mr.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_03: Stone Light to Dirty Little Rabbit to Douglas, her creative element is wild, fearless, and full of art.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_03: She has built a story history on all fronts of the music business, even spending time as an AR for Universal Records.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: And now she is ushering in the next phase of her creative renaissance with the joyous reimagining of one of her previous singles, a song Title Hello.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_03: I'm super proud to welcome my friend Stella to the show today where we talk past, present, and future and everything in between.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_03: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mic.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Caught on the Mike.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: I have to start every episode with a little anecdote.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_03: Late 1990s, I went to a radio station music festival in Des Moines, Iowa.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: As I've said multiple times on the show, I lived at the perfect midpoint between Des Moines and Omaha.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: I'm a Nebraskan now.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_03: Music brought me to Nebraska, but music is also what brought me to Des Moines.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_03: I saw this fantastic act from Chicago called Sister Soleil.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_03: And here I am many years later with my new friend Stella Soleil.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_03: How the heck are you?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really good.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really, really good.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: That's great.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: I I have so enjoyed following you on social media.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: I love following upbeat people and people that like lifting up the world.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_03: We need more of that today.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: It is definitely um that is my activism.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: I am I'm using my music as my activism to to to do that.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: I just feel like I just feel like people people are down, and I just I'm tired of making music about depression and insomnia and you know things like that.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I want I want to make music that makes people feel good, even if it's just for three and a half minutes, a three and a half minute pause of like just joy, you know.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: I feel the same way.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_03: Like I, you know, when I started this podcast five years ago, I I have this rule that I will not talk any major social issues on my show, and it's not because I don't have my own beliefs, it's exactly the same thing you just said.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's hostile.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: I don't talk about it either, yeah.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_03: I tell everybody, I say, I you know, the the old saying is if you express your beliefs, you're gonna piss off 50% of the audience.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_03: I tell everybody, well, I'll probably piss off 100% of my audience if I if I say how I really feel.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_03: But instead, I do the same thing you do, is I just use this as an art form to kind of express my activism by just showing that we have more in common than we do differently in a world.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yes in a world that's constantly trying to divide us.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and uh it is it is a music and art, I really think it is the only thing it's the it's the common denominator.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's the common denominator that you can always rely on.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you can get people that would never be uh in the same building into the same room to watch a music show um because they love the same music.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so it's it's the great unifier.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I was thinking that exact words.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_03: Well, let's start at the top.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: You've had many different names over the years: Sister Soleil, Stella Soleil, Dub Witch.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_03: You're kind of like a musical version of a superhero with multiple identities.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I get bored with my hair, then I get bored with my name.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: I just, you know, I've got to change it off.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_03: What inspired those different eras and which one feels the most like you right now?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: I would say uh uh Stella Sole okay, Stella Soleil ver version one uh back in 2001 was the least of who I was.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: I was um I was really coerced, uh forced, pushed, threatened to make a pop album.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: They did not want me to make a sister another Sister Cele record.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: They wanted me to be a pop star, and I I just I disliked pop music so much.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: I knew nothing about it, and I just uh I thought it just sounded all generic and vanilla, and I was edgy.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: Sister Cele was very edgy, and I was, you know, I was pretty uh uh in that time in my life, I was pretty aggressive and um, you know, kind of full of piss and vinegar, you know, 20s when you're supposed to be pissed off at the world.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: And um, so um, and then and then when I was on uh you know, I did that uh first record solarium on Universal as Sister Soleil, and then they're like, okay, now you're done with that, now you're going to be a pop artist.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, uh, you know, what yeah, and uh, we're sending you to London uh to work with an entirely different company, the international company that you know no one from and have never met, and you're going to make an entire pop record with them.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: And um, by the way, your last name, Katsudis, uh, is way too long and Greek to remember.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: So you need a new last name.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: And um, so I was, I'm like, how do I, Stella, how do how do I rename myself Stella Smith?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: Stella, I don't know, you know, and and uh, and I was like, you know what?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna use, because it still is me, but it's only really half of me because I'm doing a pop album.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna use Soleil from Sister Soleil is my last name.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: So that's when I became Stella Soleil.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: And that record was painful to make.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: It was very painful.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: I did learn a lot though.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: I did I did learn a lot about song writing really uh well structured songs, working with um these uh they're like hit factories.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: They're they're hit factories, they're uh they're all over the world.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: They're they're you know, um teams of writers that just like write a hundred songs a month, and one out of the hundred is gonna be a huge hit.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: And they're you know, and and the at the pace too.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um I was when I was making that pop record, I definitely picked up the pace of how fast I was writing.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: I was writing like two and three songs a day, and I was out there for like a full year.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, I don't even know how many songs I had hundreds, like in a year.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: And the it was so uh it was like boot camp, you know, for for writing.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: And um, so that I'm grateful um that I had that experience, that that kind of um that challenge and that kind of um, you know, just the amount of effort and work, and you know, you don't get to be um arty and uh abstract and uh poetic and uh-uh, no, you write about love or sex and that's it, you know, and you got this little box to write in.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: And um, when you have like rules, serious rules, that's the hardest music to write.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: And people people misunderstand pop music as oh, that's such a stupid song.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, they must have like spent, you know, like 10 minutes writing that song.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, it's way easier to just go with the flow and write what you're feeling in the moment, and you know, yeah, but writing with purpose and uh and a theme that's already created for you, and uh it's it's like it was like going to pop college.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: So um, but then um and then and then I became let's see, what did I do after that?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um after that, oh, so Universal dropped me, but then they hired me to do AR.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: So so I developed, um, I showcased seven bands, and I had developed a band.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, even though I was AR, I was really more artist development.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um I I didn't like being an AR person.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, um, how honest can I be on this show?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, as honest as you want.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: Not like regulated, or you're not be authentic.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I signed the band.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: They were stars.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they were called the Astrahe, the Astra Heights, but they were obsessed with this producer named David Kahn, who have um I think his biggest I I don't know, well, they were obsessed with him because he did the strokes, he produced the strokes.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: But um I didn't like this guy, and I told them this is a mistake.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: This guy is way too expensive.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, he is uh, you know, like he's riding the wave of fame, and and you guys, this is your first major label record.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: You need someone to who really really understands the music and and and how to elevate uh your vision to the next level and not make it his uh vision, you know, right, which is exactly what he did.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: And um, yeah, I uh almost um threw a blow at him in the studio and got into a huge argument with him because he was destroying my band and um destroying my especially the singer.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: He was uh this this um this kid could sing like Jeff Buckley and he was just making him scream like through the whole record, and you know, and um and so I basically uh said that he was a hack and that the strokes wrote you know walked their own record and he just took all the credit for it.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: So um Universal were like, Stella, you cannot talk to a producer like that.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, I can.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and they're like, you need to apologize.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, nope, I'm not apologizing.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they're destroying them.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I quit.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I quit basically over that.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: And um, because the the band were so uh brainwashed by him, and they stopped like listening to me, um, even though I had developed them for so long.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: And um, but he was the more famous person, and then I just became a girl.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: And and so I was like, okay, uh, let's see you do this on your own, you know, and they were dropped almost like they they they their record wasn't even put into stores or anything like that.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: They released it on iTunes and then it got dropped immediately.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: It was the, you know, but um, you know, they had to learn that lesson, I think, too.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: And and I had to learn the lesson that I will never be ANR again.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: I will only do artist development um on on the business side of it.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: I I like both.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm 100% artist and I'm 100% business too.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: I like both sides equally as well.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: Well, let's let's kind of take a step back just for a moment because that kind of brings up uh that brings up kind of where my mind was going whenever you were talking about making that pop album.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we both kind of came into bands in the 90s where creative liberties were like abundant, and then the Napster thing happened, and I don't necessarily believe that Napster was the sole murderer of the music industry, so to speak.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_03: I think there were a lot of things that happened, but it did seem like the industry overly course-corrected in the early 2000s, and you know, you talking about being forced to make a pop album as opposed to having that freedom of creative expression.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so the Napster thing was terrible.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: It was an awful thing, and um I I'll I'll just tell you this that there were I had some hardcore fans that were let's just call them wizards on the computer and could pretty much go and get into anywhere they wanted to go.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: And uh where they went was Napster and got the numbers of downloads uh from the pop single from the record that tanked.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that pop record tanked, even though it was like number what it was number seven in the country.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: I had a top ten hit with the single Yeah, I remember that.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: I hated that single, and um, I didn't write it, it was a cover, right?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I I take no credit for that.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, but it worked for some reason.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody loved it, and um, there were three million illegal downloads of that song on Napster, and that's what happened with that record.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: Right, nothing it didn't sell because the kids just went to Napster and downloaded it for free.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: So, so that was one thing that happened that was really terrible.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um the thing with the pop record, um so new metal came along.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and um, and so and like took over radio, um, and what was you what used to be called alternative rock radio, um, then became modern rock and only played um boys and new metal.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, I was literally told by a PD um at the uh at a radio station um that had changed format from alternative rock to modern rock.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we really love your Sister Soleil record, but we can't play it because you're a girl.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, what I was like you it is a joke.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: Am I being punked?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like, no, but um, so it was uh it was this period of time in music, and and I love like like I've been friends with the band Korn since I was like 18 years old, you know.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't consider them new metal, they're they're their own thing, thing, they're their own genre, you know.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: But there were other bands like Limp Biscuit, um, who uh I didn't get at all.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like I don't I I didn't get the brilliance of rhyming the word cookie and nookie.
• 16:48
  unknown: Right.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: I just I didn't get it.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't understand why why everyone thought that was so great.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like nookie and cookie, you know, like I mean it kind of sounded like Dr.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: Seuss, you know.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, so um so that was the reason why Universal said you don't have an option, they're not gonna you do a rock record, no one will play you because you're a girl.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: They don't play female uh rock.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: They they got rid of Lannis Marset, they got rid of Tori Amos, they got rid of uh, I mean, Courtney Love, you know, and right.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that's so that's why I had to do a pop record.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: I really didn't have an argument because I was hearing it straight from the program director's mouths that they don't play women on their station anymore.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: That was real.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like I've told this story a million times and used this example a million times, but there's this fantastic documentary.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's called Pick It Up, Ska in the 90s, and it's all about the third wave of ska and how the third all those ska bands just blew up like from 1995 to about 1998, and it talks about new metal coming along and absolutely like taking everything out, and how it was like a six-month period of time to where ska was on top of the world to where like if you liked ska music, you were just a loser, and I was in a ska band at the time, so it killed me.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: But ska bands are the best dancers, man.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: I ska shows those are the I will I went to my first ska show and um I didn't didn't know what to expect, and then all of a sudden, like 300 kids all started doing this dance.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, and I was like, and I so I was like, I I'm gonna do it.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: You had to jump in.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: They had their own dance, it was so cool.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_03: That show I saw you on in the late 90s had Goldfinger, it had the urge, it had real big fish on it, and it was like, and of course it also had slipknot on it because Corey came out and sang with you on the song Liar.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: I remember that.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well, so I had a absolute love, love, love affair with the guys in Slipknot T.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and I did not, I I honestly I didn't understand the music, but I loved them.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I was I made it my mission like to help them and to like try and get them their record deal because I I had gotten my deal right uh before them.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I I'll tell you a funny story.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um I got into it with Monty Lipman, the president of Universal Records, um, who I still am friends, good friends with, and uh and I still get into arguments with.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and but I brought Slipknot to I pitched uh to Monty uh Slipknot.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: I and I um I uh when you could burn CDs, I burned 50 copies of Spit It Out.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and I went to New York to the corporate um uh 1755 West Broadway, Universal Corporate Offices, all the top executives there, and I walked 50 copies to every office on the seventh and eighth floor and stood there and made every executive and AR person listen to the entire song, and I would not leave until they listened.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: So you so and and and then I so so when you were I was walking down the hallway, I could hear people playing it again.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: So spit it out was being played all over like Universal on the seventh and the eighth floor, and and um Monty and I got into a big argument because he was like, I don't get the masks.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, what are you insane?
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: The masks, I'm like, have you ever heard of kiss?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, boy, huh?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like and yeah, and and but um I was right because Universal exactly what I said happened.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: Slipknop blew up and took over the metal worlds, basically.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: I I mean I'm sure people are I don't know anything about metal, but I I thought they took over the metal world.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they did.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_03: They did.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_03: They did.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: And um and then Universal had to wind up like buying, like acquiring the label of the label that they were on to get them.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: So um later on.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_02: So Eventually, you know their their parent, uh, I guess Roadrunner, the the label that they're on, uh Universal bought their parent company to have Slipknot.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, I brought them to you first.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: And then they did it to me again.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, when I was living in London, I found this little band called Coldplay.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: And um their record had just come out and nobody knew who they were.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, they weren't even, they were being played on a pirate station.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I heard half of the song of Yellow and ran to like the Virgin Megastore and looked for the record, found it, and I I like I like listened to it once, packed it up next day, FedEx it, called Monty Lemon.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I need a million dollars.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, what?
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I need a million dollars.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: You're not going to regret this.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to sign this ban.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: The I need a million dollars.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_02: Because once people hear this song, they're going to take over the world.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: And and he's like, and and and so he gets the package and he's like, Stella, we a million dollars.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, what?
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: Other band I know other bands who have gotten million dollar advances, you know.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I'm telling you, listen, you messed up with Slipknot, you're gonna do it again.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: He and then he goes, he goes, Well, let's just see what happens.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, oh my.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: Watch what's gonna happen.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, yeah, and then it happened, and then it happened, and it happened, yeah.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: So so that's when I was an artist, and so that's when Monty got smart and hired me as an artist.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: He would have to.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I love I love that story, and I love the fact that we can kind of retrace history like that a little bit because you know, our mutual friend Sophia knows me from being the late teen, early 20-something kid that used to go to the slipknot shows, and I was the punk rock kid that used to go to the slipknot shows when they were a local band, and my very last show with my ska band was opening for Slipknot before they went off and recorded that very first record.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_03: So, kind of falling in line with that, you know, later on down the line after the AR stuff, you kind of had a total vibe shift and switched to fronting a rock band, Dirty Little Rabbits, alongside Sean from Slipknot.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: So this is the funny story.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I like telling these stories.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_03: I love hearing them.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: These are my boys.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: I um I will always I will always love them.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: And um so um Sophia John sends me an email and says, uh, so now this is 2000, so I quit.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: So okay, so I was AR 2005 to 2006 and a half.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: And and then in 2006 and a half, um uh Sophia sends me this email, and in the subject heading, it just said, clown wants to speak to you.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, like, and I know these guys, so like like I'm like clown, I'm like, you know, like, but it was it was it was so like I don't know, ominous or something.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, your clown wants to speak to you, and and it just cracked me up, you know, because I knew knew those guys, you know, I knew them like like I know them without their masks, you know, and and so um so he called, we talk, he's coming to LA.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: I was living in LA at the time, and then I was working, uh, I was a writer at that point, and I was writing a lot for other artists, and um and he so he said he came in and he gave me, he handed me a CD and it had like 10 songs on it.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_02: And he said, Um, do you think you could write something for one of these songs?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so I I'm thinking, oh, he's got like some side project in Des Moines, and he wants me to write a song for his artist, or I you know what I mean?
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like, and um, so he set up a a recording stud like a mobile recording studio in his hotel room, and he left, and he left me with an engineer, and um, it was it was this beautiful piano song, like so unlike something Sean would write, you know, and it was it was his it was his piano.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um it he actually wrote the piano line, and um so um all he said to me was songs about my wife, and and I'm like, oh great.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I so I I just think I'm like you know what I'm just gonna I'm just going to like feel the emotion of the song and I'm gonna I'm gonna write lyrics that could possibly be about his wife and definitely are about me.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: And um the song was called If and um and I guess he had uh asked a couple other writers to write on the same CD for him, and they kept picking this same song, everyone kept picking the same song, and and I know one of the other writers he was listening to what he wrote in the car, and I guess it uh he hit something.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: This writer was wrote lyrics about fish in the ocean or something, and he's like, Out, get out of my car, get out of my car, and he's like out of the car.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: So so this is so I didn't really know that that that like two other writers had already been, you know, with this song.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: So uh so and they're about to play, and then like, well, we'll see if it works this time.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then that's when I realized I'm like, oh my god, I'm the third person to try and write this song, you know.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, oh great.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: So he's in the front and he's really intense and he's like rocking back and forth.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like looking at him and I'm like, is this a good rocking back and forth, or is he going to go postal?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and and then and the song ends, and then there's total quiet in the car.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: And then we were in the car with two other people.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: I couldn't remember, it was like a SUV, and I'm like looking around and I'm like, what is going on?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: And and then he turns to me, he goes, You're moving Des Moines, you're you're moving to Des Moines, and you're the new singer in my new band.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I I'm like, uh, I'm sorry, what I'm like, no, I live in LA and I'm a writer, and and I I'm not moving to Des Moines.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh what?
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: And he's like, You're moving to Des Moines to be the new singer in my new band.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: And uh like we had uh a few other conversations, and I was like, I'm like, this was an audition, you know, like you know, and uh and and but he convinced me and I uh moved to Des Moines and fronted Dirty Little Rabbits, and um it's the favorite band that was my favorite band that I was ever in.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_02: I I I I loved them.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: I I loved being in Dirty Little Rabbits even more than being Sister Soleil, you know, yeah.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_03: That that story was so Stanley Kubrick up until that ending, from the point of getting the email that says clown wants to speak with you.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_02: You know, wants to speak to you.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_02: Why is he so why is he calling himself clown to me?
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_03: Why is he speaking about himself in the third person?
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I exact no, totally.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, dude, it's me.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, you know, and so um we uh we got a record deal, and um but I had so much experience in the business side, and uh I fought so much with Sean um and not not nasty fights, not not a not like creative a but about business decisions.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: And um because I I had a real education in it, and none of those guys really did.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I don't care what they say, they did not have the education that I had being signed by the chairman of Universal Music Group and then teaching me the industry, you know?
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: So um there were there were all these things, these decisions being made that I was like, nope, that's wrong, that's wrong.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: What are we doing?
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: That is wrong.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, I remember getting into a like full on like like throwdown with their lawyer.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um and um because I you know I just knew too I knew too much about the business and and and how I as an AR person would have taken Dirty Little Rabbits, I would have gotten them completely away from Slipknot totally and and and not even used it was compl totally different music.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and you know um I get it that it was the easier thing to do, hey, just jump on the coattails of Slipknot and just you know, or or Stone Sour and jump jump on their tour, but it never made sense musically, you know, and um and it eventually uh broke the band up, you know.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_02: The the it just it just couldn't work.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: The two bands could not coexist.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that that kind of gives me another pause to to think, you know, you talk about that happening from like 2006 and a half, uh and then and then Dirty Little Rabbits kind of came to a close, what, 2012, 2011, 2010.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_03: 2010.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh okay, so the end of the rabbits happened um uh when uh we had a warp tour, and um Sean couldn't do warp tour, and because he had another slipknot thing, right?
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and and you know, I'm not I would never ask Sean, you know, to be like uh choose, you know, like yeah, uh slipknot or some dirty little rabbits.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, no.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's that's just dumb.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, like and um, but I was, you know, I remember Sean, he was really upset, like that he couldn't come on the warp tour with us and we were still gonna go.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: And he his suggestion was I will find you a drummer to fill in to do the warp tour, and it'll and and you guys will still do the tour.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because all what was happening was all of the dirty little rabbits tour kept getting canceled because all of a sudden something slip knot would come up.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: And so we like so if warp tour would have gotten canceled, the it that that would have that would have been the end of the end.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: I I don't even think we could have been friends after that, you know.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like anybody would it, you know, it was it was there was so much static at that point, but um uh and I said, no way, I refuse to play with another drummer.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: What we're gonna do is we're gonna go down to a from a five-piece to a four-piece.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_02: The bass player is gonna slide onto your drum kit, he's gonna play drums because he can play drums.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_02: The keyboard player, Mikey, um, tortilla man.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my, I love you so much.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_02: Doritos.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so and I said, you know, Mikey's so talented, and he plays two B3 Hammond organs.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, he'll play the bass notes with one or with one hand with one organ, and he'll play the keys with his other hand, and he's playing like this at the playing the bass line and the keyboard line like this, and it worked.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_02: And we played like 18 shows, and we um were Kevin Lyman, the owner of the festival, listed us every day in the press as out of the 70 bands on Warp Tour, uh, Dirty Little Rabbits was in the top five bands to see, must see Dirty Little Rabbits.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_02: So it and and you know, so um I was like, there's our solution.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_02: And and Sean did actually come in and play one one show.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_02: He made it to one warp tour, one, one, one show on warp tour, and I was like, that's our solution.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_02: That this is how it could work, you know.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like when he can't play, Jeff just slides over, we become a four-piece, and when he can, now we're a five-piece.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: But uh they they wouldn't go for it.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_02: I thought it was That's brilliant.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: It was the perfect it it would worked, we would have still been to this day Dirty Little Rabbits, you know, because there was real love in that band.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, and and musically, musically, we were all on the same wavelength.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh except when Hello came along.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, all of a sudden, well, so we're writing this, like, you know, it was, you know, Dirty Little Rabbits was um a very artistic uh band.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_02: And we uh it wasn't experimental because because it was it was very well crafted song writing.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I had this amazing pop sensibility from my pop training from pop university, and and um so uh I could write really, really catchy vocal hooks and they and they could play really interesting, complex music, but I could write pop hooks over it and and it worked, you know, and but and but and and then we wrote the song Hello, and we just all knew that we were like, oh hello is this is this is this is brand new, and now we have to make a decision are we going to be a hard hitting band, or are we going to move more into like this kind of alternative pop uh direction?
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_02: And those guys, you know, they wanted to play heavy, you know, and uh I wanted I wanted to go in more in the hello direction.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_02: I thought that was the best song that we wrote, and I was really upset that it didn't come out as as the single to push.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that was another argument I got into.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I fought really hard to um have the video be of hello, but instead we shot the video for professional hit.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_02: I told them the world was not ready for girls to be that pissed off and it was not going to work, you know, but they loved it, you know, and um and it didn't work and and and and so that's that was the end.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: And uh and and also too on warp tour, um I had a broken ankle and two broken ribs, and it was uh like 18 shows playing uh with two broken ribs and a broken ankle, and I was in so much pain that I was like, I quit, I'm done touring forever.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_02: I will never tour again, you know?
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_02: And um yeah, so I left, I came to Chicago, and um I called one of my friends and I said, I'm a single girl.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I just come off the most painful tour of my entire life.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_02: I am fried.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: I just want to meet a nice boy, and clearly I can't pick them from myself, you know, like I I don't know why, but that I missed the something in the brain that doesn't work right.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: I always pick the bad boys, and um, you know, and so I said, Can you just fix me up with someone?
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_02: Just just hook me up with someone.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_02: I don't care what they look like, just a nice boy.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, and she's like, Well, my husband's best friend is single and Joe, and um so I'm like, Joe, it is.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going on a date with Joe.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_02: And uh so I went on a date with Joe, and we went to Creektown, and it was like a seven-hour date, and like there were sparks, and like the table was levit the table was like levitating, and we were, and I'm like, oh yeah, I'm gonna marry this guy.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_02: And um, three weeks later I moved in with him, and a year and a half later we got married, and so um, yeah, so so I was for like and and and so then that's when Dub Witch came.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_02: So that was me and my husband and my friend Jim.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I wanted to do a totally experimental record with beats, and um, and Dub Witch was one of my favorite projects that I've ever done.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_02: I just listened to the whole album the other day, and I was like, this was really good, and it was really, really progressive, you know, and um and it was a fun experience.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um it was a really fun experience um making that record.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I do a lot with my husband.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: My husband uh he he's a photographer and he he shoots a lot of my um uh promo stuff, and um he's shot like two or three music videos for me, and um now we're writing uh um we write poems together, and uh we yeah, we we have so we've been together now 15 years.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, awesome! Congratulations.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_03: That is amazing.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_03: That is amazing, and that's kind of that's a that's a great transition to kind of the here and now, especially when you touched on hello, because you just recently released a revamped version and video of the song Hello.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_02: So I never lost any of my my industry uh friends.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like I stayed friends with all my industry friends and to this day, and um, so Steve Leeds, who uh is a legend in the radio industry, and I also he started at MTV.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: He hired Adam Sandler, he hired Daisy Fuentes, he was head of talent at MTV when it first started, and um and then um he became like the radio god, uh I mean like royalty, you know, and um he was the head of national radio promotions at you at Universal, and I became very, very good friends with him and his family.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: And it was, and it's really funny because um whenever I wouldn't fly in from uh LA or London or Shiro, wherever I was flying to New York, um, you know, instead of getting put up in a hotel, I'd call Steve and I'd be like, Steve, I'm coming to stay with you and your family for a few days.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like so.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_02: And so I would go to like Katie, his daughter, she she was like like 12 at the time, and I'd go to her soccer games and and um uh and um she would lay in in bed with me and we would read together, like she would read her books, and I would read my books, and I just was I became like his family, I'm a part of his family, you know.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so Steve, like so I became a dog walker when I got out of the music industry and I got married, and I'm like, yeah, I'm done.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be a dog walker now.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_02: And uh so um, so finally, no, this was.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_02: Around COVID, um, and Steve was like, Steve Weeds called me and he's like, When are you going to quit this dog walking shit and get back to your career?
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, what?
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: How?
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_02: And he's like, I will help, you know, and I'm like, you know, and I'm like, yeah.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_02: And and um, but then we started working together.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and uh, and and then, you know, uh, like um I I had a really large catalog and I was like sending him songs, and you know, like, do you like this song?
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_02: Do you like I I don't even know at this point, like I'm a totally different person.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I'm super happy, like bubbly, like I laugh all the time.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and you know, like I'm so like I can't do Sister Soleil anymore.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_02: That stuff is dark.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I just I I evolved, I I grew up, you know, and and um and so I remember so then I was like, you know, there's this song um that I wrote 14 years ago with a band called Dirty Little Rabbits, and it's called Hello.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's the most favorite thing that I've ever written in my entire life, and right now the world is on fire, you know, and I'm like this song is so beautiful and uplifting, and it is the most positive message.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it the messaging in this song is so positive.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_02: I I think I think it's time for this song to like uh be redone and updated uh to 2025.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I think this is the song, listen to this, and and he's so funny.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_02: I sent it to him, and then he called me back three and a half minutes, three and a half minutes later, and he goes, Yeah, that's the song.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_02: And then my my lawyer, it was funny because I because I was um so I was, you know, because it because I'm like, it was a dirty little rabbit song.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_02: Am I even allowed to redo this?
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_02: I don't I don't know the law.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_02: So I called my lawyer and um who is also I signed a he's my manager too.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_02: He's my lawyer and my manager.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_02: I signed a management contract with him.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_02: He's uh a wonderful human being, and um it was really funny.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_02: And and he's a he's tough.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god, he's a tough critic.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_02: And um, so like so I'm like, well, if I can get it past Tim Donahue, you know, and plus he'll know of he'll know all the law on on this, you know, and because I I wasn't gonna do something that was wrong, you know.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_02: So so I asked him, I'm like, can I and he's like uh and he explained he pulls out the law, reads the whole law, and explains to me like why I can re-record the song and uh you know, and anybody, and in fact, anybody in the entire planet can cover it and don't even need to ask the writer's permission, they just have to be paid their publishing, you know.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_02: Anybody can.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's uh once uh a song is commercially released, the whole world can can put it on their record and release it.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_02: And as long as you pay the writers their writer's share, you know?
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_02: And so um I'm like, okay, well, listen to it and call me right back, okay?
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I'm like, 25 minutes go by, and I'm like, what the fuck, dude?
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so I so I'm like, Tim, he's like, it's the most joyous song I've ever heard in my entire life.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_02: I swear that that was the that was the verbiage.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's the most joyous song I have ever heard in my entire life.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, oh, I'm definitely doing hello, you know.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, now I got my direction.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_02: Now, and and and and then I was like, it's perfect timing because people are so fractured right now.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_02: And it's the song is is it's it's about all good people coming together, you know, it's all good people find each other, you know, and and um it's the perfect message for what's happening today, you know?
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_02: And and um, so um, yeah, I got the thumbs up and um and then um I tried to make a couple, so I I I recorded it and um and I got to work with like one of my all-time favorite.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_02: I've been trying, I was six years I was trying to convince this guy to produce something for me, anything.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_02: And um, he's like, we'll figure it out.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_02: We'll figure it out.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_02: John Fryer, he's he's he's a really famous uh producer.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_02: He's done, he did Pretty Hate Machine for Ninece, he did like Ford Depeche Mode records.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_02: I I mean I and then I don't even know how many metal records he's I mean he just he's probably sold collectively 250 million records, you know.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and I sent him the song, Hello, and he's like, I'll do this.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Oh my god, I got the song, I have Steve Leeds, I have Tim Donahue, and now I I I I have John Fryer, like the best producer like on the planet, I think, you know?
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_02: And and um so and then Tim um found me my band.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_02: He um put together this in aw, these guys are so incredibly talented, and they've all been in the business for long, they've all had their own record deals, and and in fact, uh one of uh Pat Gilroy, he he's in a band called One Life, and they are still they are assigned to the Plain White Teases um record label.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_02: So he's he's on a label too, but he plays with me, and I write he's my writing partner.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_02: We in fact we just wrote a brand new song, and um so uh this Tim Donahue put together a super group for me and and we went into the studio and we we had one rehearsal, we re we reworked it the song a little bit.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_02: There's there's I changed it a little bit and we took out some we took out the organ.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um we wanted to update it, we made it uh heavier on the guitars, and um and I love it.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_02: I were I was I'm this this I mean I loved the original version, but the harmonies that I wrote on this new version, uh there was only one vocal line on the original.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_02: I only sang one vocal line on this version.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_02: Do you I sang 52 hours on this version of Hello?
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh 52 hours, yeah.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, so six it was a six days of singing straight, and my voice didn't give out, and I was like, oh, I'm like, and and then I realized that because I think because I had taken such a long break from screaming in bands, um my voice, I I had no damage like to my voice, and in fact, I had gained with age like an entire octave.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's amazing.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like I have this whole octave, this alto range.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um I couldn't I was for soprano and I could never sing in an alto voice, and I have this very low elto range now that I was like, like, is there a man in me?
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like I'm like where did that come from?
• 52:24
  unknown: You know?
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_02: So um yeah, so uh so it's really incredible because um and and and I decided I'm going to do a Stella Soleil record, um, and it's going to be the most positive, positive, uplifting record anyone has ever heard.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um I just I I also just covered uh the second single um Love the One You're With, um Steven Sills Yeah, so so the the two guys that I work with in the band are lead singers in their own band.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_02: So we perfectly did the three-part harmonies.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, amazing! Yeah, so it's it's it came out incredible.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so that's my second single, but we're we'll be working hello for I will probably be working hello for like a year, you know.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_02: And and um, you know, because it's it's starting from the ground up again, which I have no problem doing the work, uh, you know, and and um, but uh, and then I wrote this really with Pat Gilroy um um such a beautiful song.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_02: I wrote it for my husband.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's called I Love This Man.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, I don't I just cut vocals, I'm such a girl.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm cutting vocals and I'm like, tears are like streaming down my eyes.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_02: I love this man.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_02: I love singing the song, but it's uh it's so beautiful, and it's just so every single and and um and some of my older songs that I did that I never liked how they came out, but they were really great songs.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_02: I'm redoing those, and so I have the the record is fully written now.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's awesome! Yeah, it's fully written.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_02: So now I'm just so and then the like uh Sophia John is is on this team, uh and and then the most incredible thing happened.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_02: Jeff Panzer joined the team.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know who Jeff Panzer is?
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes, he he he's the one that directed your video, right?
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_02: Jeff Panzer has directed 3,000 music videos of the biggest artist of all time, and has produced Rolling Stones Records and I mean some of the biggest albums of all time.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_02: And he was the producer of of all the on-air talent for 2020, for ABC, for CNN.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, the guy like and when I was having trouble because I shot two different videos for Hello, and they just it didn't, they didn't work.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_02: They just didn't work.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, I can't, it doesn't, it doesn't fit the song, you know.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_02: And um I sent it was really funny.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um Steve Leeds is best friends with Jeff Panzer, and and so Steve said, I'm gonna send this last video you did to Jeff Panzer and see what he thinks, you know.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_02: And and uh so Jeff Jeff calls me and um he says, Well, it was really it was shot well, you know, and um, you know, it and you look beautiful.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, um, paid me the nicest compliment.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, You look younger now than you did back then, you know.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Oh, I love this guy so much.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and so um, uh, and and he said, Yeah, I think I think the video is really good.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, I go, what what do you think of the song?
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_02: And he goes, what song?
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I go, Oh, I go, Jeff, do me a favor.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, don't watch the video.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_02: Just listen, just listen to the song and tell me what you think about the song.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_02: And like a minute later, he's like, he put it in his earbuds, and and he's jogging, listening to it, and and the lyric, you know, uh good people find one another.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_02: That line in below.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_02: Well, he stopped dead in his tracks, and he picked up the phone and called me.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, What kind of witchery are you using on me?
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, Did you write this about us?
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_03: That's amazing.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_02: What kind of witchery are you using on me?
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_02: And and he's like, This song is a smash head.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I and I was like, and he was in.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_02: And so Jeff Panzer and I speak 20 times a day.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_02: So now I have the dream team.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like the dream.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_02: So so my team we're not a record label, but we're functioning like a record label.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's Steve Leeds, it's Jeff Panzer, it's Sophia John, and it's Tim Donahue.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, I mean, I couldn't, it's the dream, it's like imagine, imagine being like on the Bulls, like circa 91.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, like six championships.
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_02: That's my team.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_03: That's amazing.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I there, it's in, it's incredible.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like, uh, I went from having like some of the most horrific stories in the industry to winding up and landing with the most incredible team.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_02: I could like no label could even put this team together.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_02: No, you know, so yeah.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_02: So he goes, he goes, get on a plane right now, come to LA.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm shooting your video.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I was in LA four days later, and we shot the the he, I mean, he so gets me.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_02: He got the song, he got the message.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it was really funny because he had this brilliant idea for the video.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, he's like, okay, we're gonna, we're gonna, I will, he is, I want real, real reaction from people.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_02: So what I want you to do is we're gonna walk up and down Ventura Boulevard in you know, West Hollywood, or you know, or no, in uh Sherman Oaks in LA, uh, you know, and and you're just you you're gonna take Pumayo, who was his his uh uh assist um assistant, uh he was his assistant.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_02: He was on the crew, he was part of posse, and and so Pumaya and I were walking up and down with Ventura Boulevard with waivers, and I'm like all decked down, dialed up, and I have my little sundress on and my ponytail, and and you know, and um and my my Adidas superstars with all my friendship pins on, you know, because I'm really into friendship pins and I give people friendship pins, and um, you know, uh, and um so Jeff got this idea.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, I want you to just go up to strangers and just ask them if you could um, you know, you were shooting, we're shooting your music video and if you could just hug them.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I said, okay, so me and Pumaya are walking up and down venture boulevard.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_02: First guy I asked, I'm like, Hi, we're shooting my music video, and I was just wondering if you would like to be in it, and all you would have to do, I just would just need to give you a hug.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_02: And he goes, I do not consent, I do not consent, I do not consent.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, to a hug, uh, you know, and and Pumayo and I looked at each other, we're like, huh, oh, that was weird, yeah.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, you know, like I that was weird, you know, and and so he left and uh he wouldn't hug me.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_02: And then the second uh second girl we asked, she goes, Well, I usually get paid to do things like this, so I said, Well, um what's your rate?
• 1:01:08
  SPEAKER_02: She's like, for what?
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like for a hug.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_02: She's like, Well, you know what, I'll just do this for free.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, and she's she's in the video.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_02: Amazing, yeah, and then and then the and then this and then the other thing that happened was there were these two gorgeous women, gorgeous, and but just decked out all in black, like slinky, sexy, just makeup, eyelashes, pouty mouths, you know, just like gorgeous, you know.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I go up to them and I'm like, hi, I'm shooting a music video, and I was just wondering if I could hug you.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_02: And um one of the girl girls, um, we're not interested, but God bless you.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, and I looked at Pumayo and I was like, what does God have to do with this?
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_02: I I I'm so confused, you know, it was so bizarre.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like, that was so bizarre.
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_02: But I did get in enough hugs from strangers, and and so then um uh that's when I started doing my hug challenges when I came home to Chicago.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I, yeah, I do hug challenges, and um, and it's great because uh I've never I haven't had a single person I go up to strangers with my my selfie stick and my and and I'm like, hey, um I'm can I hug you and put it on my Instagram?
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm doing a hug challenge, and they're like, yeah.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's awesome.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I've been doing this this hug challenge, and I challenge you to a hug challenge.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_02: You in one week have to hug 12.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my 12 hugs, I can get that done.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_03: I can get that's easy.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_02: So, and you strangers or animals, pets count, trees count, plants count, and you know, friends and family count too.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, you know, but you gotta get 12 in.
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_02: And uh there's um there's a science to this.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you need four hugs a day um to live, to exist.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh if you can get in eight hugs a day, uh that's maintenance, you you maintain health.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um if you can get in 12 hugs um a day, uh it's causes you to uh you're it causes you to to grow um immensely as a person and also to live longer.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_02: So there actually is science that there's that's this there's clinical data to this.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_03: I believe it.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_03: I believe it.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_03: I believe it.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_03: I believe in that, I believe in manifestation, I believe in genuine connection, and I I gotta tell you, I have so enjoyed this conversation.
• 1:04:17
  SPEAKER_03: Like, you know, it going back to the start of this episode when we first started recording, you know, you and I are in a very similar place.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I think you go through these phases in life where you like let the cynicism seep in, and the cynicism overcomes you and overwhelms you, and then you get to this chapter of life of like, how do I undo all of that cynicism?
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's it's the decades, it's it's the decades that you go through.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_02: And when you finally get to the decade, that's the Renaissance decade.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that I call it, that's where I am at right now.
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_02: And this is my rebirth.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_02: This is uh um, in fact, the the album is called Firebird.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and uh so I'm I'm in the decade of my life where this is m my rebirth, you know.
• 1:05:08
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I love that.
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_03: So my closing question actually falls in line with all of this, and it's I ask every single guest that does my show this same question because I love everybody's answer.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_03: Given all of your experiences, the highs, the lows, the in-betweens, what's your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today through your eyes?
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's the little things.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's like it's it's um, I think people um so I do this thing.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I've been doing it since I was 11.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, friendship pins.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I don't know if you know anything about that, but uh when I was 11 years old, we would take safety pins and then put different color beads on the safety pins and then pin them to our shoelaces, and then you would like do hundred on each shoe.
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_02: And then you would meet new people and and be like, Do you want a friendship pin?
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I I do you want one of my mind?
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_02: And now we're friends.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_02: And so I brought that back.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_02: And uh so now uh that's my next challenge that I'm doing is uh the friendship pin challenge um where people um make friendship pins load them up on their sneaker laces and um offer them to people you know and it's stuff like that.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_02: I think I think gestures like that, real um uh interaction that isn't on like the internet or like real interaction um creates uh well first of all you the dopamine in your brain just goes you know like through the roof you you happiness instantly someone you know and saying hello to someone saying walking down the street and saying hello to a stranger dopamine hit you know like instantly you feel good you know and I I think that and this is this is what I'm this is my activism I'm intentionally um going to um to record a full-length album that's already written um that is all positive messaging and meant to create joy in people to to feel joy and I think I know I know you cannot feel joy and hate at the same time it's impossible it's impossible and so these little things like my friendship pins the hug challenges like uh just being a good p just smiling at someone you know it's it's so uh it's so fragmented I I think that before people start having civil conversations and dialogue and stuff like there has to be like these small gestures first you know and I and I definitely definitely think um the most effective way to get people back to baseline is art and music.
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_03: I agree I agree oh my gosh well you know you talked about your super team and I gotta tell you consider me a part of that team now too I have so enjoyed this conversation why don't you tell my viewers and listeners where they can find you online Stella Soleil X.
• 1:08:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's what it is Stella Soleil X.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm on X the most it just so happens because Jeffrey Panzer is kind of like a rock star on X.
• 1:08:43
  SPEAKER_02: He's got like so there's so many music industry people on on and and so I got on and and and they're like I I can't believe like the massive amount of music lovers that are on that I thought it I I I thought it was just like a political thing or something but I I have never even seen maybe it's maybe it's the people that I'm interacting with.
• 1:09:09
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know but all I I'm on I do um um I I've gotten so many podcasts from being on X.
• 1:09:19
  SPEAKER_02: They have this thing called spaces where like they do like these mini like uh like spaces where there'll be 15 people or 20 people or something and it's like an impromptu podcast kind of thing.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody like hosts it and you just have conversations you know and um so the and then my Instagram let's see my Instagram is Stella Soleil dot official yeah that's my Instagram Stellasole.official um and those are really the two and oh please please please I beg of you that was very dramatic yes I act also um I uh beg you to go to my YouTube channel and please share my video I think the only way that I can possibly get this video out there is if people go to my YouTube channel and um share it.
• 1:10:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know like follow and share but but specifically sharing it with other people I I really really I I intentionally we intentionally created this music video to put out this incredibly positive message and of love and joy and connection and the only way it's gonna work is if people share it with each other.
• 1:10:50
  SPEAKER_02: So yes yes we're we're that's my big ask we're we're living in an algorithm world and we're just algorithm girls I swear all of us it's like so yes yes ladies and gentlemen if you're watching this go watch the hello video share it to your social media platforms let's get those views up let's get the subscribes up make sure you're following Stella on X follow Stella on Instagram every day she's going and getting her Starbucks or scooters Starbucks I am okay okay I'm gonna tell you something this is a serious this is this is okay I am addicted to Starbucks it is true I am addicted to Starbucks but Starbucks saved my life for real last year last year I was attacked a man with a knife tried he tried to kill me and he chased me um into the middle of a four-way intersection and thank god there were no cars but it was 645 in the morning and um there was no one around to help me I I was just and I was it was a standoff between him his knife and he just looked at me and he did not say a word and I said God um I need some help down here if you don't um help me figure out how to out outsmart this guy I don't think I'm going to live and um so I heard this voice in my head I'm sure I might probably was my own voice but whatever I'm thinking it's God and and um said start screaming scream as loud as you can get as angry as you can scream scream scream and so uh that didn't work and then I was like uh God that didn't that didn't work really need some help down here and then the voice said throw the coffee and I looked down in my hand and didn't even realize that I had been running from the sky holding a vente scalding cup of coffee Starbucks coffee and I was like I looked at the coffee I looked at him and I go here it goes and I with all my force I just threw it in his face and scalded his face it was all over him he grabbed his eyes like this and I ran like Forrest Gump ran for my life so fast that I actually caught up with a jogger that was like a block ahead and he looked at me he goes hey are you okay and I was like crying I'm like no this man just tried to kill me and he goes he goes oh he goes I saw that he goes I was gonna stop but then I didn't stop because I thought it was domestic oh my gosh I know I was like what and um but uh so we called the police and it turned out that 10 minutes before he tried to attack me he tried to stab another girl in her face and just like 10 minutes like uh 10 minutes away from where I was attacked and oh my yeah so um I love Starbucks yeah the serendipity of the Starbucks is is real you know it's funny I was walking into my day job the other day and I thought about that because I was walking in by myself it's like six o'clock in the morning and I had my triple venti mocha in my hand I was like you know if somebody ever jumped out at me that's exactly what I would probably do is you know toss the coffee in their face but it's a weapon it is a weapon if he I mean I and so not only did he attack me but he wound up attacking in my neighborhood nine women and um whatchamacallit and the so the the next woman they couldn't catch him they never caught him um I think he was staying with someone was taking care of him I think he was probably like mentally ill or something yeah he was mentally ill or something and um but um he walked into a Starbucks that she was in and he had um a mask on so I think I burned him so bad with my coffee that he was wearing a mask oh bye yeah and um but she from my description of him his his uh his size um the how uh he was very tall very thin lanky long limbs very long limbs and um black eyes black eyes like black like a shark black eyes you couldn't even see the whites of his eyes and um and he everywhere she would move he would move she would move he would move so she called her boyfriend and he comes running in screaming hollering like hell and he chased him out of there that guy like yeah and um and uh but uh he did uh and then there was another girl he attacked after that and then and and then I started this little victims group of these women that had been attacked by him I kind of sort of the mayor of my neighborhood and and managed to form this little like support group of all of us yeah that had been attacked by him and um remained friends.
• 1:16:52
  SPEAKER_03: Uh amazing that's another example of you living your advocacy and I absolutely love that.
• 1:16:57
  SPEAKER_02: Oh thank you.
• 1:16:59
  SPEAKER_03: Amazing this has been an amazing conversation Stella I gotta tell you the world is a much better place with you in it before the show.
• 1:17:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:17:08
  SPEAKER_03: Once again I want to thank my friend Stella Soleil for joining me on the podcast today go to YouTube search out Stella Soleil Hello watch that music video share that music video send that music video to your friends and make sure you give her a follow on X or wherever you can find her on social media platforms on Instagram she is delasole.official give her a follow and while you're being generous with follows make sure you are following Caught on the mic on all social media platforms.
• 1:17:44
  SPEAKER_03: Give me a subscribe on YouTube and need those subscriptions up and give me a visit at www.caughton the mic dot com this has been caught on the mic with Michael Clark.
• 1:17:58
  SPEAKER_03: I'm Michael Clark until next time thank you